The climate-related loadings that a building and its enclosure actually experience are modified versions of the local climate. By common definition each enclosure sub-assembly incorporates all the contiguous (in-contact) layers. As such, they can be considered to be an integral part of their respective building enclosure components. Furthermore, the compacted gravel under the basement floor (or base floor) system and the backfill to the outside of the foundation or basement wall system are each specified layers within their as–built assemblies. Consider, for example, the sloped roof system shown in Figure 1 this constitutes an enclosure assembly consisting of all the contiguous layers between the finish on the ceiling and the outer face of the roof shingles.
A deliberate air space or cavity is also a considered to be a layer. For instance, the thermal insulation could consist of a layer of blown-in glass fiber filaments. The overall enclosure is made up of all the contiguous enclosure sub-assemblies.Įach enclosure component is an assemblage of layers of specified products (such as gypsum board or wallpaper) or materials (such as paint or wood). Each enclosure component is a three-dimensional, multi-layer, multi-material assembly that extends from the inside face of the innermost interior layer (e.g., the paint or wallpaper) to the outside face of the outermost layer (e.g., paint or roof shingles). The building enclosure should not be thought of as a combination of numerous one-dimensional or even two-dimensional planar components.
DEFINITION BUILDING ENVELOPE WINDOWS
the above-grade wall system(s) including windows (fenestration) and doors.Physically, the typical building enclosure usually consists of the following components: The primary function of the enclosure is to separate the interior environment from the exterior environment to which it is exposed. Usually, however, the performance requirements of internal separators are fewer and much less onerous.
In many respects, the functions of a separator of internal environments within a building (floors and interior walls) are very similar to those of the building enclosure. There are separators between interior environments as well as separators of an interior environment and the exterior environment collectively, the latter constitute the building enclosure. The nature of the building enclosure and its spatial relationship with the other parts of the building are shown in Figure 1.įigure 1: The building as a set of separated spaces and the as-built separatorsĪs suggested by Figure 1, a building in general consists of a collection of spaces bounded by a set of spatial separators. The exterior environment above grade is very different from that below grade, and within any building there can be numerous interior environments. Both the above-grade and the below-grade portions of the building enclosure are part of a physical system involving three interactive components: the exterior environment(s), the enclosure system, and the interior environment(s).