







Productive social housing facade
thriving communities / social housing / energy efficient upgrade / BIPV / urban agriculture / Singapore
This research project is the result of a multi-criteria optimization process for a productive facade. Through simulations, the yields of the ample but limited amount of sunlight were optimized. The results were then tested using a physical prototype. Both the research and this construction project (the prototype) were conducted on behalf of the National University of Singapore as part of the Tropical Technologies Laboratory. The main goal of the project is to develop a functional residential facade for Singapore social housing stock that realistically optimizes both crop yield and electricity production using solar panels.
Our involvement was both design- and simulation-focused. We personally developed the Grasshopper setup (simulation) to simulate approximately 20,000 design variants. The Ladybug and Honeybee plugins were used to run these design variants through validated simulation software (Radiance, Daysim, and EnergyPlus).
The optimized designs for each orientation are complete and undergoing testing. For more information about this project, you can refer to the publications available below. Feel free to contact us for more information about our capacity to perform expert analyses and simulations for you!
Institutional body
National University of Singapore
Project Title
Productive facade
Research lab
Tropical Technology Lab
Publications
Conference article
Scientific article
Scientific article
Location
NUS campus, Singapore
Timeline
2017
Status
Energy simulation and prototyping
Type
Research
Researchteam
Prof. Abel Tablada, Ian Chaplin, Huajing Huang, Vesna Kosoric
Department head
Prof. S.s.Y. Lau
Partners
Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS), City Developments Limited (CDL)
Sponsors
UNISEAL and Wiredbox
Images
Abel Tablada, Ian Chaplin, Huajing Huang