ABSTRACT
Fundamental to understanding the energy performance of the all-glass skyscraper is acknowledging that even the most advanced glazed systems commercially available have a thermal conductive performance far inferior to a basic insulated wall. Tall buildings are increasingly being built in hot climates, often with highly glazed and unshaded facades. The first all-glass buildings were not designed for people, but instead for plants. In the early nineteenth century, horticulturalists such as Joseph Paxton used the shelter and heat-capturing properties of glasshouses to cultivate tropical plants in the otherwise temperate climates of Northern Europe. Paxton, however, wanted to go further and use these properties to create buildings suitable for human habitat. The optimum façade design in any given climate or site needs to respond to a variety of different parameters, including the weather, season, sunpath and occupant use. The challenge is these parameters change across hours, days, weeks and months.
