Climate and Context Adaptive Building Skins for Tropical Climates: a review centred on the context of Colombia

Adaptive Building Skins is a field of research that has received growing attention in the last few years, since it proposes to combine and complement both, active and passive design technology into the building envelope. Furthermore, their designs apply principles of adaptability, transformability and evolution, in order to cope with the constantly changing nature of climate. Most of the research in this field has been conducted for the temperate and seasonal climates, characteristic of European and North American regions. However, little information is available on the application and viability of adaptive building skins for tropical climates. As emerging economies flourishing in diferent countries of South Asia, Central Africa and South America, new oportunities for the use of these types of building envelopes start to materialise. This paper presents a structures literature and case-studies review of current developments in the fiels, with particular attention to the Colombian context. The distinct geographical features of Colombia allow the existence of a great diversity of climates. Traditionally, these conditions have influenced the development of different passive design strategies for building skins. This paper concludes with a reflection on arising opportunities, where existing methods can be combined and enhanced with alternatives concepts that respond to local and available recourses.