A low environmental impact anidolic façade

The building of the Solar Energy Laboratory (LESO) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne was erected in 1981 to allow “in situ” testing of experimental solar facades. In 1998, the building was the object of a significant restoration and a new southern facade was designed and built following the principles of sustainable development. This article describes the principles that guided this work, and presents the results obtained with regard to energy consumption, flow of matter, daylight, comfort and, lastly, a detailed life cycle assessment analysis: the various environmental impacts related to the construction, exploitation and maintenance of the facade are presented and discussed.