Permeable double-skin facades for protection and valorization of existing buildings: analysis of wind-induced effects.

In the last decades, both the growing attention for protecting cultural-heritage buildings from environmental hazard and the incentive to rehabilitate suburban and industrial compounds have both opened to a range of new architectural proposals. Among those, the topic of permeable and transparent double-skin façades has shown increasing interest among designers, for the numerous benefits coming from the transparency and durability of structural glass. Thin-skin facades allow to create a naturally ventilated access to the main building: a progressive, smooth transition between the external environment and the core of the structure. The drivers to promote this kind of technical solutions are diverse: protection from weathering and corrosion, fire-hazard mitigation, architectural valorisation, modernization and conversion.