The New Year brings the opportunity to make important updates and changes to your property. With a new budget to leverage, it’s time to look at ways for “going green(er)” in the new year and to explore how tension membrane facades can support your project plans.
Being more environmentally friendly can manifest in many different ways. From your building’s energy usage to its role in the greater community, tensile membrane facades are a cost-effective step for improving your property’s environmental impact and your tenants’ comfort. In addition to the advantages of building sustainability, tension fabric facades are an economical way to retrofit any existing building exterior.
Reduce Cooling Costs
Solar heat gain, or the heating of a building’s interior due to sun exposure during the day, is a challenge for nearly all buildings. Simply put, as the day warms up outside, your cooling energy usage increases inside. Tension membrane facades are a highly effective way of reducing the impact of solar heat gain by reflecting that sunlight, reducing the energy necessary to cool the building and ultimately lowering costs. It also has the added benefit of protecting those inside the building from harmful UV rays and distracting glare.
Minimize Artificial Light Needs
Reducing the impact of solar heat gain does little for energy costs if it increases the need for artificial light. Tension membrane facades use translucent fabrics, such as PTFE-coated fiberglass membrane or PVC membrane, that maximize daylight and minimize the energy needed to power artificial lights. Over the course of the year, this can dramatically lower electric costs.
Battle Against Urban Heat Island Effect
In cities and business hubs, the higher concentration of concrete as opposed to natural landscapes results in an increase in the community’s overall temperature. While making an effort to incorporate grass, trees, and plant life into your landscape design is an important element, wrapping the building’s exterior in a tension membrane facade system is also incredibly effective in reflecting the sunlight and absorbing less of the sun’s heat. This supports a healthier community and provides an effective talking piece when speaking to your stakeholders about your commitment to the environment.
Are Tension Membrane Facades Right for Your Commercial Building?
A tension fabric facade is a type of tension structure application that uses expanding technology to enable architects and designers the flexibility to offer alternate, affordable, and low-maintenance design solutions for a wide range of buildings. They can span great distances with less structural support, which makes them perfect for commercial buildings.
In the Tension Structures Division of Eide Industries, we specialize in design, engineering, manufacturing, and installation of structurally complex and creatively challenging commercial, government, and prototype design projects. Our expertise with tensile facade systems and tension structures supports architects, designers, general contractors, and building owners in their efforts to bring custom tensile membrane projects to life.
Explore the options for your next project by calling 800-422-6827.