Intelligent façades generating electricity, heat and algae biomass
Windows that change their light permeability at the touch of a button, façades, whose color can be changed according to the sunlight, façades and window parts in which transparent photovoltaic modules are integrated or in which microalgae are being bred to provide the house with its own biofuel: This is what the buildings of the future could feature, or at least something similar. "Many of these ideas are certainly within imagination end even technological feasibility, today, in particular within the field of façades which may adapt to their environment and thus improve the energy efficiency of modern buildings," states Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lothar Wondraczek from Friedrich Schiller University in Jena (Germany). "But only a fraction of this potential has been tackled so far, as the relevant materials and production processes are still missing," he further explains.