Sustainable Design

As a member of the United States Green Building Council, Birdair continues to support the growing popularity of sustainable design in today’s custom architectural building industry.

By maximizing tensile architecture’s inherent daylighting capabilities, increased insulative value and reduced material usage, Birdair offers architects and building owners a progressive, environmentally responsible option to traditional architecture systems.

Birdair’s open, airy designs provide an abundance of natural light to building interiors. Fabric membrane's high degree of translucency lends itself to greater “harvesting qualities” that result in decreased demand for costly electric lights. Additionally, studies have shown that increased natural light levels and productivity go hand in hand. At the same time, fabric membrane offers a high level of solar shading, subsequently reducing solar heat gain within a structure.

Birdair designs can also contribute to LEED® credits and green building certification. For example, Birdair fabric membrane structures can garner LEED credits in the categories of daylighting, insulation value and reduced and recyclable material usage.

Birdair utilizes fabric membrane products with a variety of energy-saving benefits and other sustainable attributues. TiO2-coated PTFE fiberglass fabric membrane, or titanium dioxide photocatalytic membrane, is a non-toxic, flame-resistant coated tensile fabric that features unique self-cleaning properties, providing shade and comfort while actively neutralizing airborne pollutants and odors. PTFE fiberglass, an extremely durable and weather resistant woven fiberglass membrane, maintains both Energy Star and Cool Roof Rating Council Certification. Tensotherm™ with Lumira™ aerogel offers the same architectural beauty as Birdair’s other tensile fabric membranes, but with the added benefit of a feather-light insulation layer that traps air to prevent heat loss and solar heat gain. Additionally, the steel supports, cables, rods and other metal fittings that Birdair uses to support their tensile architectural roof systems are made from a high degree of recycled content and are fully and easily recyclable.

This variety of sustainable fabric options, coupled with the minimal waste of steel cable assembly, allows Birdair to create tensile structures that work with the environment, not against it.