Sustainable Cities and Society 97 (2023) 104740

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Sustainable Cities and Society

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scs

Origami-based adaptive facade for reducing reflected solar radiation in

outdoor urban environments
Marco Meloni a, b, Qian Zhang a, Jianguo Cai a, *, Daniel Sang-Hoon Lee b, *
a
Key Laboratory of C & PC Structures of Ministry of Education, National Prestress Engineering Research Center, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China
b
Institute of Architecture and Technology, The Royal Danish Academy - Architecture, Design and Conservation, Copenhagen 1435, Denmark

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This paper proposes an origami-based adaptive façade for reducing potentially harmful reflected solar radiation
Urban health in outdoor urban environments. The Walkie-Talkie building in London is selected as case study due to numerous
Solar radiation reported incidents related to the excessive reflected solar radiation of the building. The performance of an
Adaptive façade
origami-based adaptive façade in reducing peak reflected solar radiation at the pedestrian level is investigated by
Origami engineering
Built environment
means of computer simulations. The simulations are based on the hourly peak irradiance between 10 AM and 2
Deployable system PM of a day in August. Initially 10 different folded states of three different Miura-fold origami units were
adopted, and the peak reflected irradiance were simulated with 15-minute intervals for each folded state. The
results showed that, the best performing origami based adaptive façade can reduce the peak reflected solar
irradiance by 61% in average, and up to 90% depending on the specific folded state and the time of the day.

1. Introduction et al., 2019).

The number of people living in megacities is expected to grow
reaching the 16% of the total urban population by 2035 (Dodman et al.,
2022), the relevant stakeholders and policymakers acknowledged that
the future of our societies will be shaped by the way we design our cities
(Cissé et al., 2022; Khor et al., 2022). Importantly, our dynamically built
urban environment can put the well-being of citizens at risk (Gao et al.,
2023; Li et al., 2022, 2022).
A number of discomforting, and potentially dangerous conditions
can arise from dynamic interactions between the built forms and the
natural climate. Densification of urban population demands for taller
buildings, and both visual and thermal discomfort of the occupants in
tall buildings are among the frequently raised problems (Katafygiotou &
Serghides, 2014; Nazzal, 2005). Furthermore, disability glare (Jakubiec
& Reinhart, 2014), thermal stress (Lau et al., 2019), skin diseases and
other pathologies (Lucas et al., 2019) could be caused by the excessive
exposure to both direct and reflected solar radiations in the outdoor
environments. Excessive solar radiation in dense urban settlements
could worsen the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon (Gao et al., 2022;
Ma et al., 2020), while the lack of exposure to sunlight could have a
negative impact on the mental and physical health of citizens (Figueiro
et al., 2017; Gu et al., 2019; Lee et al., 2021; Vernia et al., 2018; Zhou
In recent years, several incidents brought attention on the danger of
reflected solar radiations from building façades. The excessive solar
radiation reflected by the concave glass façade of the Vdara Hotel in Las
Vegas caused thermal stress and skin burns among users of the swim­
ming pool of the hotel (ABC News, 2010). The concave glass façade of
the Walkie-Talkie building in London concentrated reflected solar ra­
diation at the pedestrian level causing extreme rises in temperatures,
damages at cars, urban furniture and private businesses (BBC News,
2013a, 2013b; Mail Online, 2013). Damages at artefacts caused by the
excessive solar radiation reflected by a surrounding building have also
been reported by the Nasher Museum in Dallas (Huffpost, 2012).
Potentially dangerous glare conditions have been observed around the
Shard in London (Express.co.uk, 2012) and Hotel La Tour in Milton
Keynes (BBC News, 2021), while in combination of rising temperatures
of surrounding surfaces have been reported around the Walt Disney
Concert Hall in Los Angeles (The New York Times, 2004).
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, relatively few studies
addressed the problem of excessive reflected solar radiation in urban
environments. Danks et al. (2016a) wrote a comprehensive review on
the topic. They suggested that irradiance level above 2500 W/m2 should
be avoided in any scenario, while 1500 W/m2 could be considered the
threshold value for short-term exposure. They further investigated the

* Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: j.cai@seu.edu.cn (J. Cai), daniel.lee@kglakademi.dk (D.S.-H. Lee).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2023.104740
Received 21 February 2023; Received in revised form 6 May 2023; Accepted 18 June 2023
Available online 25 June 2023
2210-6707/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
M. Meloni et al.
impact of reflective facades and proposed different approaches to miti­
gate potentially dangerous scenarios (Danks et al., 2016b). Zhu et al.
(2019) studied the case of the Walkie-Talkie building in London. Their
simulation results agree with incident reports, showing that critical
levels of reflected solar radiation could be reached in different hours of
the year. Similarly, Abdelwahab et al. (2019) adopted computer simu­
lations to investigate the case of the Nasher Museum in Dallas. Their
results agree with the real-life scenario and show the impact of both
building geometry and materials selection. Different studies investigated
the case of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, addressing the
base case (Schiler & Valmont, 2005) and post-treatment scenarios (Suk
et al., 2007).
Despite the reported incidents, the allowable reflected solar radia­
tion levels for outdoor are not commonly addressed during design
development stages, nor regulated by public institutions. In addition, it
is difficult to find common understanding among practitioners on how
to evaluate worst-case scenarios, and the few mitigation strategies in the
past do not effectively address the transient nature of the problem.
Retrospective installations of interventions can eventually solve the
problems of reflective solar radiation, but are costly, and create further
disturbance to the occupants and local habitats during the installations.
Therefore, it is the most preferred to address the impact of reflected solar
radiation on the outdoor environment during the design stage with
respect to the façade design. The level of reflected solar radiation, hence
the outdoor comfort is governed by the reflectance value of the façade
and the solar incidence angle (Salvati et al., 2022). However, the impact
by different reflectance values can be limited (Fabbri et al., 2020), when
compared with the possible effect of varying the incidence angle on
facades, which seems more plain way to control the concentration of
reflected radiation.
Therefore, the objective of the current research is to investigate the
performance of a designed adaptive façade system in reducing the peak
reflected solar radiation in the surrounding area. A novel application of
origami-based folding panels is explored as a method to dynamically
change incidence angles of the façade, hence preventing the reflected
solar radiation concentrating at a single location. The current paper
provides detailed geometrical specifications of the origami units used in
the simulations, as well as the detailed design and simulation workflow,
including the set-up configurations and the adopted data for simula­
tions, which can be readily adopted and used by the end-users. The
Walkie-Talkie building in London is selected as case study, and the re­
flected solar radiation of the building was simulated using Radiance
(Larson & Shakespeare, 1998). Simulation results are discussed and
compared with available incident reports.
The paper is structured as follows. The case study, the simulation
workflow, and the geometrical properties and folding motion of the
origami-based façade are described in Section 2. Results are presented in
Section 3. In Section 4, a parametric study is performed to investigate
the performance of the best performing origami-based façade configu­
ration with different geometrical parameters. The significance of the
results is discussed in Section 5, where limitations and strengths of the
proposed method are also discussed. Finally, conclusions are provided in
Section 6.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Case study
In the current scenario of urban development, there is an increasing
demand from stakeholders and policymakers for generalised approaches
to evaluate the impact that the built environment has on the well-being
of urban societies. Nevertheless, such approaches can hardly be pro­
posed due to the site-specific characteristics of urban areas (Krüger,
2017; Lee & Mayer, 2018; Nikolopoulou & Steemers, 2003). Assessing
the impact of reflected solar radiation requires defining parameters such
as location, sun position, sky conditions and complex surfaces
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Sustainable Cities and Society 97 (2023) 104740
interactions that would make research findings hardly transferrable
from one case to another (Wen et al., 2023; Zhu & Gu, 2022). Therefore,
it would be desirable to test mitigation strategies in case studies where
extreme conditions have been observed and documented.
The building at 20 Fenchurch Street in London, also known as the
Walkie-Talkie, is selected as case study in this work. It has 37 floors that
culminate in the “sky garden” rooftop for a height of approximately 160
m. The original design and current state of the building are shown in
Fig. 1. Even before the time of its completion, the concave geometry of
the south-facing fully glazed façade acted as a parabolic reflector
concentrating extreme levels of solar radiation on the adjacent Eastc­
heap Street. A schematic representation of the phenomenon is provided
in Fig. 2.
Numerous incidents have been reported by the public such as
melting of plastic car parts (BBC News, 2013b), damage to bicycle seats,
burning of fabrics and doormats, cracks in tiles and blisters on the
paintings of private businesses (BBC News, 2013a; Mail Online 2013). A
map of the affected area is provided in Fig. 3.
Temperatures as high as 91 ◦ C have been recorded on Eastcheap
Street (BBC News, 2013a), raising concerns on the safety and wellbeing
of pedestrians. Following the numerous complaints of citizens, the
original fully glazed façade was covered by an array of static aluminum
louvers, as shown in Fig. 1b. The louvers have been installed from the
3rd to the 34th floor of the building, thus not covering the “sky garden”
rooftop. After their installation, no further incidents have been reported
by the public.
In the present investigation, the original design prior to retrofit is
considered the base case scenario against which the performance of the
proposed origami-based façade is assessed. With the aim to evaluate the
impact that the building has on its surrounding, an ideal case scenario
that includes the surrounding buildings without the Walkie-Talkie
building in also simulated. Such approach allows to comprehensively
evaluate the scenario prior to the construction of the Walkie-Talkie
(ideal case), the scenario with the Walkie-Talkie with the unshaded
south facade (base case), and the scenario with the proposed origami-
based adaptive façade.
2.2. Simulation workflow
The reflected solar radiation around the Walkie-Talkie building is
investigated by means of computer simulations. The proposed compu­
tational workflow combines 3D modeling, climate-based and
Geographic Information System (GIS)-based tools with the open-source
Radiance tool (Larson & Shakespeare, 1998). Radiance utilizes a back­
ward ray-tracing method that can simulate physically accurate lighting
and daylighting scenarios. In this work, it is connected to the popular 3D
modeling software Rhinoceros®/Grasshopper® through the Ladybug
tools plug-in Ladybug Tools (2022). Detailed information on the Radi­
ance simulation engine can be found in literature (Kharvari, 2020). The
integrated simulation workflow requires a minimal manual exchange of
data between the tools used, which cover all the simulation steps of
GIS-based data acquisition, geometrical modeling, materials selection,
climate-based data acquisition, Radiance settings and simulation run.
The simulation workflow starts defining the case study composed of
the geometry of the buildings. Rhino/Grasshopper is used as base plat­
form, to which all the required data are conveyed. The first step involves
acquiring GIS-based data from the city of London. They are obtained
from OpenStreetMap (OSM) and imported into Grasshopper through the
Urbano plug-in Dogan et al. (2020). A 2D representation of the sur­
rounding buildings is extrapolated from the OSM data. In order to have
an accurate representation of the environment surrounding the
Walkie-Talkie, buildings’ heights are obtained by manual measurements
from Google Earth. An overview of the base case simulated scenario that
include the Walkie-Talkie and 64 surrounding buildings located in an
area of approximately 450,000 m2 is provided in Fig. 4.
OSM provides the outlines of the floors of the Walkie-Talkie, which
M. Meloni et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 97 (2023) 104740

Fig. 1. The Walkie-Talkie building at 20 Fenchurch Street in London. Original design (left); current state after the retrofit intervention (right). Copyright: Jordiferrer
/ Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA-4.0.

Fig. 4. Simulated scenario.

Fig. 2. Schematic representation of the solar radiation reflected by the Walkie-
Talkie on Eastcheap Street.
Fig. 3. Map of the affected area. Numbers correspond to door numbers on
Eastcheap Street. Copyright: Google Earth.
have been used as reference to model the building. Due to its complex
geometry, the nature of the incidents reported by the public, and the
focus of this study, only the south-facing façade is modelled in detail. It
is defined distributing the 37 storeys following the curvature of the 2D
floors provided by OSM. The façade of the real building features
different panels of different dimensions, and its digital version is
modelled with flat panels with a millimeter approximation. Their height
has been obtained by the storeys division, while their width has been
determined considering the number of glass panels of different floors in
the real building. The digital model, which is shown in Fig. 5, represents
the original design of the building before the installation of the shading
louvers. The static shading systems mounted on the roof, east and west
facing walls are not modelled. The “sky garden” rooftop is included in
the floor counts and its geometry is simplified to have a continuous
façade on the south side. Due to its minor impact, the roof is simplified
with a planar surface. Overall, the model is composed of surfaces that
are imported into Radiance as planar meshes.
The second step of the workflow involves defining the materials of
each element included in the simulation. The simulation scenario is
divided into three main components: the Walkie-Talkie, the ground and
the surrounding buildings. Modern high-rise buildings often adopt
spectrum selective glass to allow some wavelengths of the solar spec­
trum to enter the building while blocking others. Such approach protects
indoor areas from ultraviolet (UV) and infrared radiation, while allow­
ing visible light to enter. The reflection of different wavelengths of the
solar spectrum is achieved by a thin low-emissivity (low-E) coating or
film applied to the glass (Alvarez et al., 2005). Assuming that the

3
M. Meloni et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 97 (2023) 104740

1. Origami unit construction, positioning in the Walkie Talkie facade

and folding motion definitions. All the variables are parametrically
defined to allow for quick modifications for many design iterations.
2. Definitions of surface properties: All surfaces’ properties, including
origami panels, ground, surrounding buildings and Walkie Talkie
facades and roof. Every geometry presents in the scene is assigned
with a reflectance value.
3. Model construction and definition of the view for the Point in Time
image
4. Weather file import and definition of the sky and simulated time of
the year
5. Point in Time simulation setup. The Radiance parameters are defined
here.
6. Image post processing and reading of the results.

The process of the buildings’ geometrical construction, which has

been performed manually inside Rhino with the support of OSM, Urbano
and Google Earth, is not included in the workflow depicted in the image.
OSM data are imported to Rhino with Urbano, and the 3D building
volumes are constructed manually.
The melting of the plastic component of a car parked in Eastcheap
Street has been reported on August 29th, 2013 (BBC News, 2013b).
Further incidents have been reported in the same period of the year,
while previous studies estimated that peak solar radiation values in the
area occur on October 12th (Zhu et al., 2019). Therefore, a preliminary
investigation is carried out to select the day, the period and the sky
conditions to be applied in the simulation. Hourly irradiance values
from 8:00 to 18:00 are plotted for both August 29th and October 12th of
a TMY. The base case scenario shown in Fig. 4 is investigated in the
simulation. Simulations are performed with both sunny with sun (ss) and
Fig. 5. Digital model of the Walkie-Talkie building.
intermediate with sun (is) conditions according to the Standard Com­
mission International de l’Eclairage (CIE) Sky classification (GENSKY,
Walkie-Talkie features spectrum selective glass panels on its façades, a
2022). The Radiance simulation is performed as point-in-time image-­
reflectance of ρ = 0.27 is selected. The reflectance for the ground and
based simulation. Parameters are set to reach a desirable trade-off be­
surrounding buildings is set to ρ = 0.1 and ρ = 0.3, respectively. Such
tween speed and accuracy as ambient bounces (ab) = 2, ambient accuracy
assumptions are in line with previous works published in literature (Zhu
(aa) = 0.15, ambient divisions (ad) = 512, and ambient resolution (ar) =
et al., 2019).
128 (Radiance Rendering Options, 2022). Remaining parameters are
Climate data are acquired from the Climate-OneBuilding repository
kept as default. The peak irradiance values are shown in Fig. 7.
(Climate.Onebuilding.Org, 2022) and imported into Grasshopper with
The magnitude of the results can be evaluated comparing them with
the Ladybug tools plug-in. The selected Typical Meteorological Year
the threshold levels suggested in literature, which are 2500 W/m2 and
(TMY) file is the London.Wea.Ctr-St.James.Park, with latitude: 51.50,
1500 W/m2 for absolute and short-term exposure (Danks et al., 2016a).
longitude: − 0.13, time zone: 0, elevation: 5.00. TMY files provide
As expected, it is observed that the type of sky has a major impact on the
meteorological data for every hour of a typical year from which the time
results. Because extreme peak values are observed only during sunny
for the simulation can be selected. The latter is defined according to the
days with clear sky, cloudy conditions are not considered in the
availability of incidents reports, data recorded in previous studies and
remainder of the paper. The highest peak value is obtained in August
preliminary simulations performed in this work.
29th, although similar values can be observed in October 12th. Because
The overall layout of the Grasshopper consoles and the main steps
there is a higher probability to experience sunny with clear sky condi­
are summarised below (Fig. 6):
tions on August 29th, and several incident reports are available from
that period of the year, August 29th is selected for the investigation.
According to the preliminary results and guidelines provided in

Fig. 6. Grasshopper console layout.

4
M. Meloni et al.
Fig. 7. Hourly peak irradiance values simulated around the Walkie-Talkie and surrounding buildings on August 29th and October 12th of a TMY.
literature, the period for the simulation is set from 10:00 to 14:00 with a
time-step of 15 min Khor et al. (2022). The proposed origami-based
façade is presented in the following section, while the simulation re­
sults for both base case and origami façade are presented in Section 3.
2.3. Origami-based design
In recent years, origami-based designs have gathered widespread
attention in the field of adaptive façades. They might possess desirable
properties such as scalability, rigid foldability, reduced degrees of
freedom (DOFs) and the capability to obtain rich 3D geometrical vari­
ations while fabricated in 2D (Meloni et al., 2021). Despite several
origami-based façades have been investigated in literature (Fiorito et al.,
2016; Pesenti et al., 2018; Tabadkani et al., 2019), relatively few solu­
tions found application in real life scenarios (Attia, 2005). Such
discrepancy might be caused by the often too complex geometries
studied in early design phases, the difficulties faced when converting
mechanisms into structures, and the lack of attention given to relevant
aspects such as maintenance, actuation and operating costs.
This paper proposes an origami-based façade that features a Miura
origami unit (Miura, 1994). The latter is composed of one degree-4
vertex, which is the simplest unit that could be used to generate origami
patterns (Dudte et al., 2021; Meloni et al., 2022). The Miura unit fea­
tures a crease pattern composed of three mountain folds with dihedral
angle θ ∈ [0, -π], and one valley fold with dihedral angle θ ∈ [0, π], as
shown in Fig. 8. Vertices with three mountain folds are called mountain
vertices, while vertices with three valley folds are called valley vertices.
Furthermore, the crease pattern could be reversed, thus leading to the
arrangement of three valley folds and one mountain fold.
Fig. 8. Miura unit. (a) Crease pattern; among the interior edges, the valley fold is represented with a dashed line, while the three mountain folds are represented with
solid lines. (b) Partially folded state. (c) Flat folded state. Note that in (b) and (c) the dashed lines represent the lines not visible due to the overlapping of panels.
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Sustainable Cities and Society 97 (2023) 104740
The Miura unit has desirable characteristics such as developability,
flat foldability, rigid foldability, and 1 DOF. It can be fabricated in 2D
and rigidly folded to reach a flat folded configuration. Furthermore, its
folding motion could be driven by linear actuators, while the dimensions
of its symmetrical panels could be adapted to fit quadrilateral bound­
aries of different ratios and dimensions. Three examples of foldable
Miura units in relation to a given quadrilateral boundary with a
mountain vertex (a-c) and a valley vertex (d-f and g-i) are shown in
Fig. 9. Different arrangements and folding motions could be achieved
reversing the crease pattern and using different vertices or edges as
anchor points. Mode M1 (a-c) shows a folding motion anchored to vertex
3 with vertices 1–3–7–9 having the same motion plane. Mode V1 (d-f)
shows a folding motion anchored to vertex 6 with vertices 4–5 sliding on
the starting plane. Mode V2 (g-i) shows a folding motion anchored to the
edge 5–8 and assuming no rotation around it. The three modes shown in
Fig. 9 are the configurations investigated in this work.
Different variations and parameterizations of the Miura unit have
been proposed in literature (Gattas & You, 2014; Schenk & Guest, 2013).
The geometry investigated in this work is parameterized by its compo­
nents a1, a2, b1, b2, γ 1, γ2, the folding angle β ∈ [0, π/2] and the dihedral
angles θ1 ∈ [0, π] and θ2 ∈ [0, π], as shown in Fig. 8. A parametrical
model of the unit is modelled in the Rhino/Grasshopper interface. The
mechanism is designed as a plate/hinge system with ideal hinges and
panels of negligible thickness. The folding motion is determined
analytically and driven by the folding angle β. Although methods that
are more comprehensive have been established for calculating the
foldability of degree-4 vertices (Foschi et al., 2022; Waitukaitis & van
Hecke, 2016), a simplified approach for the rigid foldability of Miura
units is adopted in this work. The dihedral angle θ2 is calculated as
M. Meloni et al.
Fig. 9. Miura unit facade modules. (a-c) Miura unit with a mountain vertex and an anchored vertex (Mode M1). (d-f) Miura unit with a valley vertex and an anchored
vertex (Mode V1). (g-i) Miura unit with a valley vertex and an anchored edge (Mode V2).
follows:
Numbering the quadrilateral panels from 1 to 4 counterclockwise
starting from the bottom left, panel 2 is rotated according to β. Subse­
quently, panel 3 is rotated around b2 according to θ2. Finally, the two
panels are mirrored along their left edge, thus obtaining the remaining
panels 1–4. The resultant dihedral angle between panels 1–2 and panels
3–4 is equal to θ1, while the angle between panels 2–3 is equal to θ2.
Thus, the complete folding motion of the unit can be defined using Eq.
(1). In the following sections, different geometrical and folding state
combinations are investigated to understand their impact on the
reflection properties of the proposed façade. The reflectance for the
origami-based façade is set to ρ = 0.4, assuming the usage of a dark gray
fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP Reflectance Value, 2022).
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Sustainable Cities and Society 97 (2023) 104740
3. Results
3.1. Base case
Firstly, the ideal case scenario is simulated to assess the solar radia­
tion prior to the construction of the Walkie-Talkie. Secondly, the base
case scenario with the Walkie-Talkie is investigated for assessing simu­
lation results against the available incident reports. The simulated day,
time, materials and settings are as described in Section 2.2. Peak irra­
diance levels are calculated from 10:00 to 14:00 with a time step of 15
min, as shown in Fig. 10.
The irradiance levels in the ideal case scenario ranged from 517 W/
m2 to 689 W/m2, reaching their peak at 11:45. Such values are
considerably lower than the safety thresholds identified in literature and
would not pose risks to pedestrians. In the base case scenario, irradiance
values ranged from 1760 W/m2 to 4880 W/m2. Irradiance levels exceed
the short-term exposure threshold of 1500 W/m2 throughout the
M. Meloni et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 97 (2023) 104740

Fig. 10. Peak irradiance values simulated for the ideal case and base case scenarios on August 29th of a TMY. Saturated and black dashed lines represent the safety
short-term threshold (st) and absolute threshold (at), respectively.

simulated period. Furthermore, the absolute threshold of 2500 W/m2 is
exceeded from 10:45 to 13:45. Peak values close to 5000 W/m2 can be
observed at 11:45 and 12:45, thus raising concerns about the safety of
people in an area that hosts both commercial and recreational activities.
According to simulation results, the construction of the Walkie-Talkie
increased peak irradiance values in the surrounding area from a mini­
mum of approximately x3 times at 10:00 to a maximum of approxi­
mately x10 times at 12:00.
The location of the peak irradiance values should be taken into
consideration to assess the potential dangers to pedestrians and objects
in the investigated area. The results of four point-in-time simulations are
graphically presented in Fig. 11. Analysing the results in comparison
with Fig. 3, it can be noted how peak values mainly affect the south side
of Eastcheap Street from number 10 to 40 and the roofs of buildings
17–19 and 23–39.
Eastcheap Street hosts different businesses and activities, thus
requiring a careful investigation for the evaluation of risks. A bus stop is
present in front of building 2. According to simulation results, the area
does not face concerning irradiance values. A parking area for cars is
present in front of building 4–8. No damages at cars have been reported
from the area, which showed to be not affected by extreme irradiance
values in the simulations. A parking area for bikes is present in front of
building 16–18, from which the scorching of the bike seat has been re­
ported (Mail Online, 2013). Simulation results showed that the area is
affected by concerning irradiance values from 11:00 to 12:00. The
windows on the east-facing roof of building 17–19 are hit around 10:00
by irradiance values that exceed the short-term threshold. Furthermore,
the building 20–22 showed to be affected by concerning irradiance
values from 12:00 to 13:00. The number 20 hosts a café with outdoor
seats and a restaurant with indoor seats facing a fully glazed façade. In
the simulated scenario, engaging in such activities would have been
dangerous for people. A parking spot for cars is also present in front of
building 20, from which the melting of the plastic component of a car has
been reported (BBC News, 2013b). The high level of irradiance in the
area has been confirmed by simulation results. The extreme reflected
sunlight reported by the barbershop at the number 22 have also been
confirmed by simulation results, as shown in Fig. 11c (Mail Online,
2013). Two additional spots for parking bikes are present in front of
building 25 and building 30–40. While the former does not face con­
cerning conditions, the latter is affected by concerning irradiance values
from approximately 13:15 to 14:00. After that time, the reflected radi­
ation beam moves towards the number 43, nearby the St. Margaret
Pattens Church of England. Although a café with outdoor seats is present
in the area, the irradiance intensity does not reach concerning values

Fig. 11. Base case results. Irradiance values simulated on August 29th of a TMY. (a) Time 11:00; peak irradiance value 2620 W/m2. (b) Time 12:00; peak irradiance
value 4620 W/m2. (c) Time 13:00; peak irradiance value 4770 W/m2. (d) Time 14:00; peak irradiance value 2390 W/m2.

7
M. Meloni et al.
after 14:00. Furthermore, tables and seats are allocated under a tree that
provides desirable shading conditions. Despite the modeling and simu­
lation assumptions, simulation results found good agreement with in­
cidents reports and available literature (Zhu et al., 2019). The strengths
and limitations of such assumptions are further discussed in Section 5.
3.2. Origami-based façade
The capabilities of the three modes shown in Fig. 8 in reducing re­
flected solar radiation are investigated with the simulation workflow
adopted for the ideal and base case scenarios. Simulation settings are as
described in Section 2.2, while the façade properties are as described in
Section 2.3. The three modes are obtained with the same starting ge­
ometry with a1=a2=1.87 m and γ1=γ2=80◦ , as shown in Fig. 9. Such
values are selected as starting configuration because they allow covering
almost fully the given rectangular boundary using the Miura origami
unit. The width of the unit is the same as the width of the starting plane,
from which the value b1=b2 is derived. The origami units are positioned
in front of each panel of the south façade of the Walkie-Talkie at a dis­
tance of 0.8 m. Each unit is independently actuated, and it is assumed
that they all fold synchronously. Comparing Fig. 9 with Fig. 8 (where the
pattern has a1∕ =a2 and γ1=γ2), it can be seen how the position of the
vertices during folding changes with the variation of the geometrical
parameters of the crease pattern. This aspect is further investigated in
Section 4. Simulation results for the mode M1 are shown in Fig. 12.
Although the best performing configurations are selected in the figure,
safe reflected solar radiation values could be guaranteed by several
folding states at different times.
Peak irradiance levels are calculated for every folding state of the
geometry with β ∈ [0◦ , 89◦ ] with a 10◦ step. The final flat folded state
(β= 90◦ ) is approximated at 89◦ to avoid the overlap of panels in the
zero-thickness model. The point-in-time simulations are performed from
10:00 to 14:00 with a time step of 15 min, as done for the ideal and base
case scenarios. Results are presented in Tables 1-3 for the mode M1, mode
V1 and mode V2, respectively. Because the three modes feature the same
geometry with different crease patterns and anchor points, they have a
common fully deployed state β= 0◦ Therefore, such state is simulated
only once for all the modes.
When fully deployed, the origami-based design resembles the
Fig. 12. Origami-based façade mode M1 results. Irradiance values simulated on August 29th of a TMY. (a) Time 11:00; folded state 20◦ , peak irradiance value 578 W/
m2. (b) Time 12:00; folded state 10◦ , peak irradiance value 602 W/m2. (c) Time 13:00; folded state 10◦ , peak irradiance value 511 W/m2. (d) Time 14:00; folded state
10◦ , peak irradiance value 527 W/m2.
8
Sustainable Cities and Society 97 (2023) 104740
geometry of the south oriented façade. Due to the higher reflectivity of
the origami panels in comparison to the façade panels, the fully
deployed configuration increases reflected solar radiation at the
pedestrian level. Unsafe conditions are observed for all the simulated
times, with the only scenario at 10:00 being slightly lower than the
absolute safety threshold of 2500 W/m2. An increasing of reflected solar
radiation from 32% to 45% is observed in comparison to the base case
scenario. When compared to the ideal case scenario, reflected solar ra­
diation values are increased for a minimum of approximately x5 times
and a maximum of approximately x13 times. Hence, the proposed design
cannot reduce reflected solar radiation when in its fully deployed
configuration.
Without considering its fully deployed state, the mode M1 allows to
achieve safe conditions for 109 times, unsafe conditions under short-
term exposure for 28 times, and absolute unsafe conditions for 16
times. Safe conditions could be guaranteed at any simulated time for
every folded state ranging from 10◦ to 40◦ Safe conditions are also
reached for the majority of the simulated time with folded states
50◦ − 60◦ , although unsafe conditions under short-term exposure are also
observed. Differently, unsafe conditions are observed for the majority of
the time for the folding states 70◦ , 80◦ and 89◦ Without considering its
fully deployed state, the mode M1 allows for an average reduction of
reflected solar radiation of 61%, with a maximum reduction of 90% and
a minimum reduction of 9%, when compared to the base case scenario.
Without considering its fully deployed state, the mode V1 allows to
achieve safe conditions for 109 times, unsafe conditions under short-
term exposure for 25 times, and absolute unsafe conditions for 19
times. Safe conditions could be guaranteed at any simulated time for
every folded state ranging from 10◦ to 40◦ Similarly, to mode M1, safe
conditions are also reached for the majority of the simulated time with
folded states 50◦ − 60◦ Unsafe conditions are observed for the majority of
the time for the folding states 70◦ , 80◦ and 89◦ Without considering its
fully deployed state, the mode V1 allows for an average reduction of
reflected solar radiation of 61%, with a maximum reduction of 88% and
a minimum reduction of 5%, when compared to the base case scenario
Without considering its fully deployed state, the mode V2 allows to
achieve safe conditions for 97 times, unsafe conditions under short-term
exposure for 33 times, and absolute unsafe conditions for 23 times. As
for the previous modes, safe conditions could be guaranteed at any
M. Meloni et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 97 (2023) 104740

Table 1
Peak irradiance values (W/m2) around the Walkie-Talkie simulated with the origami-based façade mode M1 at different folded states. Green values represent safe
conditions, yellow values represent unsafe conditions under short-term exposure, and dark orange values represent unsafe conditions for any exposure time.

Table 2
Peak irradiance values (W/m2) around the Walkie-Talkie simulated with the origami-based façade mode V1 at different folded states. Green values represent safe
conditions, yellow values represent unsafe conditions under short-term exposure, and dark orange values represent unsafe conditions for any exposure time.

simulated time for every folded state ranging from 10◦ to 40◦ Safe
conditions are also reached for the majority of the simulated time with
the folded state at 50◦ Differently, unsafe conditions are observed for the
majority of the time for the folding states 60◦ , 70◦ , 80◦ and 89◦ Without
considering its fully deployed state, the mode V1 allows for an average
reduction of reflected solar radiation of 56%, with a maximum reduction
of 90% and a minimum reduction of 8%, when compared to the base case
scenario.
Overall, all the three modes are able to bring back reflected solar
radiation values to the ideal case or under a x2 times increasing of the
ideal case values when folded from 10◦ to 30◦ From the folded state of
40◦ , an increasing of the ideal case values greater than x2 times can be
observed. Excluding the fully deployed state, the maximum increasing of
the ideal case values is observed at the folded state 89◦ for all the three
patterns. All the patterns show capabilities in reducing and redirecting
reflected solar radiation beams at different simulated times.

9
M. Meloni et al.
Table 3
Peak irradiance values (W/m2) around the Walkie-Talkie simulated with the origami-based façade mode V2 at different folded states. Green values represent safe
conditions, yellow values represent unsafe conditions under short-term exposure, and dark orange values represent unsafe conditions for any exposure time.
When compared to the base case, mode M1 and mode V1 reach the
highest average reduction of reflected solar radiation of 61%. Differ­
ently, mode M1 and mode V2 provide the maximum absolute reduction of
90%. Mode M1 and mode V1 are able to achieve safe conditions for the
highest number of simulated times, while mode M1 achieves the lowest
amount of absolute unsafe states. All the investigated modes could
achieve safe conditions at any simulated time when deployed from 10◦
to 40◦ Considering the amount of simulated safe conditions, safe con­
ditions under short-term exposure and unsafe conditions, the mode M1 is
considered the best performing geometry. Therefore, the impact that
varying its geometrical parameters have on reflecting solar radiation is
investigated in the following section.
4. Parametric analysis
A parametric study is carried out to evaluate the impact that
geometrical parameters have on the performance of the origami-based
façade mode M1. According to the unit parameterization presented in
Section 2, the variations of parameters γ 1, a1/a2, and γ 2 are investigated.
Different configurations are simulated assuming that geometries have to
lay within the given rectangular boundary obtained from the glass
panels of the modelled Walkie-Talkie, as previously shown in Fig. 8. An
example of how varying geometrical parameters in each of the three
investigated scenarios changes folding geometries is given in Fig. 13. All
the configurations fold pivoting on vertex 3 with a rotation that keeps
vertices 1, 3, 7 and 9 on the same plane. The simulations framework and
assumptions are as described in Section 2.
4.1. Varying γ 1
The variation of the angle γ 1 is investigated assuming the constants
a1=a2 and γ1=γ2. While the configuration shown in Fig. 9 featured an
angle γ 1=80◦ , in this section are simulated geometries with γ 1=60◦ ,
γ 1=40◦ and γ 1=20◦ Because changing the angle γ1 alters both partially
folded and fully deployed geometries, all the states of each configuration
are simulated. Results are summarized in Tables S3-S5 in the Supple­
mentary Materials section.
10
Sustainable Cities and Society 97 (2023) 104740
In the configuration γ 1=60◦ , unsafe conditions are observed for the
fully deployed states at any simulated time, with the only scenario at
10:00 being lower than the absolute safety threshold of 2500 W/m2.
Excluding its fully deployed state, this configuration provides safe
conditions for 109 times, unsafe conditions under short-term exposure
for 30 times, and absolute unsafe conditions for 14 times. Safe condi­
tions could be guaranteed at any simulated time for the folded states 20◦ ,
40◦ and 50◦ Safe conditions are also reached for the majority of the
simulated time with folded states 10◦ , 30◦ and 60◦ , although unsafe
conditions under short-term exposure are also observed. Unsafe condi­
tions are observed for the majority of the time for the folding states 70◦ ,
80◦ and 89◦ Without considering its fully deployed state, this configu­
ration allows for an average reduction of reflected solar radiation of
60%, with a maximum reduction of 90% and a minimum reduction of
10%, when compared to the base case scenario.
In the fully deployed states of the configuration γ1=40◦ , only sce­
nario ranging from 10:00 to 10:30 is lower than the absolute safety
threshold of 2500 W/m2. This configuration allows achieving safe
conditions for 89 times, unsafe conditions under short-term exposure for
47 times, and absolute unsafe conditions for 17 times. Safe conditions
could be guaranteed at any simulated time for the folded states 30◦ and
40◦ Safe conditions are also reached for the majority of the simulated
time with folded states 20◦ , 50◦ and 60◦ , although unsafe conditions
under short-term exposure are also observed. Unsafe conditions are
observed for the majority of the time for the folding states 10◦ , 70◦ , 80◦
and 89◦ Without considering its fully deployed state, this configuration
allows for an average reduction of reflected solar radiation of 51%, with
a maximum reduction of 86% and an increasing of 7% in its worse
performing state, when compared to the base case scenario.
The configuration γ1=20◦ behaves similarly to the previous config­
urations when fully deployed. Considering the other states, it provides
safe conditions for 47 times, unsafe conditions under short-term expo­
sure for 71 times, and absolute unsafe conditions for 35 times. Safe
conditions could be guaranteed for more than half of the simulated times
at the folded state 30◦ , while unsafe conditions are reached for the
majority of the simulated time in the remaining folded states. Without
considering its fully deployed state, this configuration allows for an
M. Meloni et al.
Fig. 13. Mode M1 facade modules. (a-c) Unit with a1=a2 and γ1=γ2=40◦ (d-f) Unit with γ1=γ2=80◦ and a1=2*a2. (g-i) Unit with a1=a2, γ1=80◦ and γ2=40◦ .
average reduction of reflected solar radiation of 38%, with a maximum
reduction of 70% and an increasing of 66% in its worst performing state,
when compared to the base case scenario.
When compared to the base case, the configuration γ1=60◦ reaches
the highest average reduction of reflected solar radiation of 60%, which
is slightly lower than the average reduction of 61% obtained by the
configuration γ 1=γ2=80◦ The two configurations have the same
maximum reduction, while the configuration γ 1=γ2=60◦ has a slightly
higher minimum reduction. Furthermore, they both guarantee 109 safe
states, while configuration γ 1=γ2=60◦ performs slightly better providing
less absolute unsafe conditions. Configurations with γ1=γ2=40◦ and
γ 1=γ2=20◦ perform sensibly worse than the other two configurations
according to all the metrics.
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Sustainable Cities and Society 97 (2023) 104740
4.2. Varying a1/a2
The variation of the ratio a1/a2 is investigated assuming γ 1=γ2=80◦
While the configuration shown in Fig. 9 featured a ratio a1=a2, in this
section are simulated geometries with a1=2*a2 and a2=2*a1. Because
changing the ratio a1/a2 does not alter the starting fully deployed ge­
ometries, only the folded configurations are simulated in this section.
Results are summarized in Tables S6 and S7 in the Supplementary Ma­
terials section.
Excluding its fully deployed state, the configuration a1=2*a2 pro­
vides safe conditions for 102 times, unsafe conditions under short-term
exposure for 32 times, and absolute unsafe conditions for 19 times. Safe
conditions could be guaranteed for all the simulated times at the folded
states ranging from 10◦ to 30◦ Safe conditions are also reached for the
majority of the time at the folded states 40◦ and 50◦ , while unsafe
conditions are reached for the majority of the simulated time in the
M. Meloni et al.
folded states ranging from 60◦ to 89◦ Without considering its fully
deployed state, this configuration allows for an average reduction of
reflected solar radiation of 59%, with a maximum reduction of 90% and
a minimum reduction of 9%, when compared to the base case scenario.
The configuration a2=2*a1 provides safe conditions for 100 times,
unsafe conditions under short-term exposure for 34 times, and absolute
unsafe conditions for 19 times. Safe conditions could be guaranteed for
all the simulated times at the folded states 10◦ and 20◦ Safe conditions
are also reached for the majority of the time at the folded states ranging
from 30◦ to 50◦ Unsafe conditions are reached for the majority of the
simulated time in the folded states ranging from 60◦ to 89◦ , with ab­
solute unsafe conditions observed in the folded states ranging from 70◦
to 89◦ Without considering its fully deployed state, this configuration
allows for an average reduction of reflected solar radiation of 59%, with
a maximum reduction of 90% and a minimum reduction of 7%, when
compared to the base case scenario. The two configurations do not
substantially differ in their performance and perform worse than the
base configuration with a1=a2.
4.3. Varying γ 2
The variation of the angle γ2 is investigated assuming a1=a2 and
=γ2. While the configuration shown in Fig. 9 featured an angle
γ 1∕
γ 1=γ2=80◦ , in this section are simulated geometries with constant
γ 1=80◦ and varying γ 2=60◦ , γ 2=40◦ and γ 2=20◦ Because changing the
angle γ2 with a constant γ1 does not alter the starting fully deployed
geometries, only the folded configurations are simulated in this section.
Results are summarized in Tables S8-S10 in the Supplementary Mate­
rials section.
The configuration γ2=60◦ provides safe conditions for 111 times,
unsafe conditions under short-term exposure for 28 times, and absolute
unsafe conditions for 14 times. Safe conditions could be guaranteed for
all the simulated times at the folded states 20◦ , 40◦ and 50◦ Safe con­
ditions are also reached for the majority of the simulated times at the
folded states 10◦ , 30◦ and 60◦ Absolute unsafe conditions are observed
at folded states 80◦ and 89◦ Without considering its fully deployed state,
this configuration provides an average reduction of reflected solar ra­
diation of 61%, with a maximum reduction of 90% and an increasing of
11% its worst performing state, when compared to the base case
scenario.
The configuration γ 2=40◦ provides safe conditions for 95 times,
unsafe conditions under short-term exposure for 42 times, and absolute
unsafe conditions for 16 times. Safe conditions could be guaranteed for
the simulated times ranging from the folded states 30◦ to 50◦ Safe
conditions are also reached for the majority of the simulated times at the
folded states 20◦ and 60◦ Absolute unsafe conditions are observed at
folded states 80◦ and 89◦ , while unsafe conditions under short-term
exposure are observed at folded states 10◦ and 70◦ Without consid­
ering its fully deployed state, this configuration provides an average
reduction of reflected solar radiation of 55%, with a maximum reduction
of 87% and an increasing of 1% in its worst performing state, when
compared to the base case scenario.
The configuration γ 2=20◦ provides safe conditions for 63 times,
unsafe conditions under short-term exposure for 63 times, and absolute
unsafe conditions for 27 times. Safe conditions could be guaranteed for
the majority of the simulated times ranging from the folded states 40◦ to
60◦ Unsafe conditions under are observed for the majority of the time at
all the remaining folded states. Absolute unsafe conditions are observed
at folded states ranging from 10◦ to 40◦ , at 80◦ and 89◦ Without
considering its fully deployed state, this configuration provides an
average reduction of reflected solar radiation of 43%, with a maximum
reduction of 84% and an increasing of 75% in its worst performing state,
when compared to the base case scenario.
The performance of the configuration γ2=60◦ are similar to the
configurations γ 1=γ2=60◦ and γ 1=γ2=80◦ It provides 111 safe states and
14 absolute unsafe states, which are respectively the highest and lowest
12
Sustainable Cities and Society 97 (2023) 104740
values among all the simulated configurations. Its average and
maximum reduction are also similar to the configurations γ 1=γ2=60◦
and γ 1=γ2=80◦ , although in its worst performing scenario it increases
reflected radiation instead of decreasing it, when compared to the base
case scenario. The configurations γ 2=40◦ and γ2=20◦ show considerably
lower performance, confirming the trend observed in the previously
simulated configurations. Therefore, it can be deduced that the perfor­
mance of the model decreases when decreasing γ 1 and γ 2. When
considering the highest amount of obtainable safe states, the configu­
ration with γ 1=80◦ and γ2=60◦ is the best performing. Such configura­
tion is also among the best performing when considering average,
maximum and minimum reduction coefficients. Similar performances
are also obtained with configurations γ1=γ2=80◦ and γ1=γ2=60◦
5. Discussion
The investigated origami-based adaptive façade can effectively
reduce the peak reflected solar radiation levels in the given scenarios.
The system is composed of rigid foldable quadrilateral panels, which can
be readily constructed with a variety of materials. Desirable reductions
in the peak radiation levels have been obtained with average 61% at the
folded states in between β=10◦ and 89◦ for M1 and V2 modes. The re­
sults were achieved from the reflectance value of the origami panels
equal to 0.40. Such properties could be advantageous for future de­
velopments of an innovative adaptive façade that could modulate both
indoor and outdoor radiation scenarios. The necessity to deploy the
origami units during sunny days with clear sky for the safety of outdoor
environments could be coupled with the shading requirements of indoor
spaces. Furthermore, PV systems could be integrated in the origami
panels, which could be more deployed under sunny conditions and more
folded under cloudy skies. Despite the promising results, future work
should be carried out to make the proposed simulation workflow and
technology applicable to real case scenarios.
Further research efforts should be made for comprehensively
defining threshold solar radiation levels in urban environments,
including their potential impact on the wellbeing of pedestrians, green
areas and urban furniture. Among the challenges that will need to be
addressed, of particular relevance will be evaluating the reflection of
spectrum selective materials, the dynamic role of clothing and time of
exposure. Simulation workflows should be optimized to take into ac­
count such parameters, while results should be validated against
experimental tests.
The proposed simulation workflow takes into account global solar
radiation, thus not differentiating the reflective effect of different
wavelengths. Future work could focus on addressing the impact of ul­
traviolet wavelengths, which could be particularly harmful for humans.
Such task could be performed tailoring TMY data and the reflectance
values of materials. Additional studies will be required for verifying if
using a single fixed reflectance value for each surface, as currently done
by Radiance, is a reasonable assumption for a study of this kind. Efforts
on providing more accurate and easily accessible data on urban models
could substantially improve simulation results, which currently rely on
several material and modeling assumptions. Nevertheless, it is worth
noticing that simulation results found good agreement with the avail­
able incident reports.
Despite a broad range of geometrical variations and folding motions
have been investigated, addressing the full design domain of origami
mechanisms remains challenging. Several additional origami patterns
could be studied, including further variations of the design proposed in
this work. Although independently actuated, it has been assumed that
all the units fold synchronously with a common folding angle.
Furthermore, they have been homogenously arranged in the façade,
although some of them could have had a minor impact on the reduction
of peak reflected solar radiation. Additional studies could be performed
to assess what is the minimum number of origami units necessary to
bring reflected radiation under desirable levels. Furthermore, it should
M. Meloni et al.
be addressed where they should be placed in the façade and what could
be the impact of having units that fold according to different folding
angles.
Relevant aspects not considered in this work are thickness accom­
modation, materiality and actuation of the system. The folding of
structures composed of degree-4 vertices with thick panels has been
extensively studied in literature and do not pose a major challenge.
Thanks to their rigid motion, the panels do not experience stress during
folding and could be constructed with a wide range of materials and
hinge systems. Although solid panels have been investigated in this
work, permeable panels could also be studied. Such variation could lead
to have structurally lighter systems and better lighting in indoor spaces.
The design of actuators and their performance should also be evaluated
considering safety requirements and energy consumption. Of particular
interest could be the coupling of PV in the panels that would enable the
operation of the system without additional energy requirements.
6. Conclusions
This article presented an origami-based adaptive façade for reducing
potentially harmful levels of reflected solar radiation in urban envi­
ronments. The main findings of the study are that the origami based
folding can significantly reduce the peak reflected solar radiation in
outdoor urban environments, and that safety threshold was met with the
different folded states and the geometrical configurations. Such prop­
erties are considered advantageous for a technology that in real case
scenarios should obtain desirable trade-offs between outdoor and indoor
comfort conditions. Simulation results suggest that origami-based
adaptive façades could be an effective tool for improving the well­
being of urban inhabitants by reducing exposure to potentially harmful
reflected solar radiation.
The study also highlights the importance of considering the inter­
action between building façades and solar radiation in urban environ­
ments. Excessive reflected solar radiation can create uncomfortable and
potentially dangerous conditions for pedestrians, as well as contributing
to the urban heat island effect. The impact that such reflections could
have on plants and urban furniture should also be considered in future
studies. The use of adaptive façades, which can dynamically adjust their
shape and orientation to changing sunlight conditions, can help to
mitigate these problems and improve the overall microclimate of urban
environments.
The findings of this study pave the way for future research on the
design and application of origami-based adaptive façades in urban en­
vironments. Further studies could investigate the performance of
different design configurations and materials, as well as the potential
benefits of incorporating other features, such as PV panels, into origami-
based façade designs. Ensuring simultaneous comfortable conditions for
indoor and outdoor areas will be the main subject of future works. The
workflow could be adapted to perform multi-objective optimization
studies where the best trade-offs among designs within the indoor and
outdoor comfort ranges could be evaluated. Once such workflow will be
defined, additional parameters could be added to the optimization
problem thus enabling a more comprehensive evaluation of the impact
of the proposed design. Such approach would allow considering
important aspects such as the energy consumption for the folding of the
units and their impact on the occupant’s view to the outdoors.
Overall, this study provides simulation-based evidence that origami-
based adaptive façades could be a valuable tool for improving the health
and wellbeing of urban inhabitants. Future work will focus on experi­
mentally investigating crucial aspects such as thickness accommodation
and actuation. The use of these flexible and sustainable design solutions
could help to create more comfortable, liveable, and resilient cities for
the future.
13
Sustainable Cities and Society 97 (2023) 104740
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
Data can be available on reasonable requests.
Acknowledgments
Funding: The work presented in this article was supported by the
National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 51822805,
51878147 and U1937202].
Supplementary materials
Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.scs.2023.104740.
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