Hassan Zolfagharzadeh - Associate Professor, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, International University of Imam Khomeini, Qazvin, Iran,
Mohsen Ranjbar Zeynali - Energy architecture student, , Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, International University of Imam Khomeini, Qazvin, Iran,

Due to the environmental and global warming issues and the consequential climate changes, interest and also need for developing innovative solutions to increase environment’s stability have raised in recent years. Regarding building’s main components, it is expected that buildings’ facades play an important role in developing stable design for the building. The present study investigates intelligent facades according to their different types, challenges and effects they have on energy consumption in buildings. In this paper we study different types of double-skin facades systems and their features, and then, we study the examples. In this paper, after studying and analysis, recent studies and examples are evaluated and analyzed in order to reach a conclusion about double-skin facade to minimize energy consumptions in buildings. Finally, it is proved that the double-skin facade is very helpful and significant in developing the current buildings. The only concern regarding the double-skin façade is its higher cost compared to the traditional single-glass façade. However, many experts widely believe that the long-term cost of the double-skin façade is lower. Therefore, they suggest that intelligent facades should become one of the inherent structures of the low-energy buildings for future development.

Intelligent buildings, intelligent facades, energy efficiency, environmental control, double-skin façade, thermal comfort