Curtain walling resiliency for tall buildings: standards, testing, and solutions

People's existence is facing the effects of climate change that bring recurrent and new calamities. These are influencing both the building design and the government requirements to deal with, among other things. There is an urgent need to adopt technology solutions that answer the necessity for resilient built environments to achieve human safety and property safeguard. In urban areas, tall buildings have contributed to the definition and progress of building envelopes in the last several decades, advancing the professional expertise of façade designers. These experts are called to carry out a consistent quantity of inputs to accomplish numerous goals, including structural, energy, and comfort performances. In this chapter, the international façade resilience best practices that have been established to withstand potential disasters are examined. The available test standards on this topic are discussed, the testing procedures are presented, and the tools to explore solutions that can reduce façade vulnerability in extreme conditions are developed. Finally, façades are shown in their potentiality, leading to the constitution of resilient building envelopes capable of adapting to forthcoming extreme events. From this perspective, the building envelope design becomes a prepping practice, anticipating future calamities.