Sustainable Buildings

Decrease the energy consumption of buildings by development of innovative optical materials and coatings

Within the Sustainable Buildings Program, Brightlands Materials Center and partners focus on the development of innovative materials and coatings. These can be used for application in building envelopes to reduce the energy consumption for heating and cooling of buildings.

Buildings are currently responsible for 40% of the energy consumption and 36% of the CO2 emission in the EU.
To secure our future energy supply we need to reduce our energy consumption.
Our innovative materials for application in the building envelope can help reducing energy consumption, and even generating renewable energy on-site.

2-step strategy

Step 1: increase the energy efficiency
Step 2: address needs with on site renewable energy generation

Glass Windows

The building envelope is the primary thermal barrier between interior and exterior. Innovative materials can play a key role in determining the level of comfort, indoor climate, natural lighting, ventilation, energy consumption for heating & cooling.

Brightlands Materials Center – Sustainable Buildings currently focuses on glass windows as an important part of building envelopes in relation to energy saving.

Energy loss through windows accounts for roughly 50% of energy consumption
85% of glazed areas in buildings are still inefficient because of either single glazing or outdated double glazing (recently investigated by ‘Glass for Europe’)

Glass for Europe, the trade association for European manufacturers of building, automotive, and transport glass, on the importance of providing products that can generate energy savings, reduce CO2 emissions and create healthier buildings.

Our program

Materials play an essential role in finding developing new solutions. We develop advanced optical films and coatings for adaptive heat regulation in architectural glazing (“they keep the heat inside the building in winter, and outside in summer”), and improvement of the efficiency and / or esthetics of building integrated solar modules.