Life Cycle Design for Lightweight Skin

The typical membranes for building are polymer-based and have origin from fossil fuel but become very lightweight building components, compared with other typical ones. Structural elements stiffen them (bio-based or not) and, due to the lightness, involve fewer structural materials than other components. Through a multidisciplinary experimental design path—focused on the weight factor at the level of the constructive system and the efficiency factor at the level of primary material—it is possible to enhance the efficiency and the aesthetic of lightweight skins and distill the eco-design concepts which can be transferable to the whole construction sector. In other words, the author tries to demonstrate the impacts of reducing weight firstly in textile skins and also other lightweight and hybrid architectures. Coming from this significant weight awareness through experimental knowledge, the author discusses the opportunity to apply multidisciplinary design approaches to reduce energy consumption and environmental loads during the life cycle. This chapter aims to elaborate on those concepts and systematize the obtained results demonstrating the advantages of the Life Cycle Design strategy in the environmental sustainability of novel lightweight skins.