ZERAF (ZERo-carbon building enabler Adaptive opaque Facade) is a new concept for building facades that aims to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings in the EU. Using innovative materials and dynamic thermal control systems, ZERAF transforms opaque building facades from static thermal barriers to thermal modulators. It does so by bringing together cutting-edge knowdglege from diverse fields, such as aerospace, biomedicine, nanomaterials, chemistry, and IoT, to reconceptualise the adaptive opaque facade concept. It involves high-risk/low-TRL research in an interdisciplinary environment to bring innovative solutions to the building sector. The expected impact is the strong reduction of heating and cooling energy demand of buildings, while minimizing the embodied carbon. If the technology is largely applied in new buildings and in retrofits, it will have a major impact on the environment and on the European economy and society in terms of (i) reducing of the operational energy consumption of buildings, thereby downsizing of electricity bills and dependence on petrol and gas; (ii) minimizing of the carbon footprint of both new and existing buildings, thus combating climate change; (iii) generating new products for the building industry which creates new jobs, stakeholders and innovative and sustainable European industrial lines and (iv) creating New European Bauhaus compliant architectural styles. ZERAF technology can be applied to any building (new or existing) that has a significant proportion of opaque façade, thanks to the modularity and the adaptability of the technology to diverse contexts. ZERAF will also bring completely new aesthetics to the cities, offering a wide range of design options: ZERAF facade cladding can have endless geometric patterns and designers will have the freedom to use different materials, coatings and colours, in line with the New European Bauhaus initiative. The versatility of the technology will enable its adaptation to be deployed in several climatic areas, guaranteeing a Just Energy Transition to all. In terms of new product creation, the envisaged technology brings new formulations of polyurethanes and shape memory alloys (SMA) that will boost advanced materials manufacturing in EU. This will open new markets compatible with new industrial processes for bioPUR and SMA building actuators, creating jobs in the chemistry and materials science sectors. Moreover, it is expected that different materials will be suitable for the developed technology according to the different climates, building uses and material availability in the geographical area. This will generate a large and diversified market in Europe. New markets and jobs will also be established thanks to the novel dynamic characteristics of opaque façade technologies: the management of ZERAF will require interdisciplinary expertise in automation, thermodynamics and building physics and new business models able to exploit the co-benefits of the ZERAF technology will be needed.
The aim of the EIC-EU funded project is to scientifically prove that the ZERAF concept can significantly control all heat transfer mechanisms in opaque building facades. For the first time, prototypes will be manufactured and their thermal behaviour will be characterised in a dedicated laboratory. This characterisation will allow the validation of advanced simulation models at building and component scale. In order to demonstrate that the materials, manufacturing processes and assembly methods used do not compromise the reduction of the carbon footprint, key sustainability parameters will be quantified using a building life cycle analysis.
