Cost Effectiveness of Implementing External Facades System.

Façade is a major building component with the potential for enhancing sustainable construction through effective preservation of energy and economic contributions by using green materials, labour, and plant. Therefore, it can be an important contributor towards sustainable development goal. In recent times, many innovative building facades are evolving, with the aim of ameliorating the challenges relating to environmental and energy factors. Building facades are capable of behavioural changes in real-time such as change of indoor and outdoor factors in response to any environmental situations thereby improving efficient use of energy. Although the need for building façade is increasing, the success of these innovative building façades will depend on balancing technical specification and application of innovative/green materials with cost benefit realised on a long term. However, there is lack of detailed information of the initial cost impact during the design stage, necessary for evaluating their cost savings or any inherent economic benefit to support informed decision. To address this, this research aims to evaluate the cost impact of using building facades in building projects in terms of its sustainable benefit, relative to the economic challenges and benefits to the built environment. A secondary research approach using existing cost information/data substantiated with explorative view from professionals working with facade systems is adopted. The research reveals the significance of considering cost benefits using life cycle cost rather than the initial cost to support informed decision-making on the use of building facades as a means of enabling a sustainable built environment.