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Material specialist SCIN is curating the materials feature at Architect@Work and the focus is on facades

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The facade is undergoing a transformation from building skin to smart membrane. The use and choice of materials for facades is ever-changing as we lurch from vernacular to the exoskeleton, concrete to inflatable polymer.

The facade is often the most complex and expensive part of a building, combining issues of performance and appearance. In this Architects@Work feature we will be looking at past success and future opportunities, aiming to some show some materials that amaze and astonish, from the most cutting-edge of technological and architectural development to those with jaw-dropping beauty or a genuine sustainable legacy.

1 Robofold

One facade we have researched is designed by innovative design studio Robofold.

The studio uses industrial robots to gently bend sheets of aluminum to create hugely innovative and decorative facades, designed using its own special 3D modelling program. The image shows a Robofold piece that was designed by Andrew Saunders.

2 Digital Art International

Water light graffiti is a new system developed by the French artist Antonin Fourneau, produced by Digital Art International. This surface is made up of thousands of LEDs illuminated when they come into contact with water. By touching the edges of an LED, the water creates an electrical bridge and makes the current pass through the circuit, providing power to the LED below to the surface. This allows the audience to create graffiti with anything wet.

3 6A Architects

This is Paul Smith's new shop front's cast iron facade designed by 6A Architects. It is made up of a series of interlocking circles, creating both a sinuous and optical pattern.

Renowned British designer, Paul Smith has had his shop covered in a material that is so typically British, a material that dresses our streets: iron. It is a material we are all very familiar with. The process and unusual use of iron make this magnificent and unique facade all the more a marvel.

4 Space group

Space group has developed a facade that is groundbreaking. It has produced a cladding type which can change its properties, such as transparency, reflectiveness and even colour via computer-controlled, electro-magnetic currents.

The system consists of a triple-glazed unit. One of the micro-cavities created contains 'fluid metal', which is altered by magnetism. The facade can constantly be transformed, and the transparency can be altered.

5 Lumaglass

Lumaglass is a innovative technical product that can combine self-supporting U-shaped glass channels, electroluminescent lighting with various colour options, or the latest in LED lighting, providing colour-changing options.

6 Elegant Embellishments

Smog-eating facades are no longer the future; they have become a reality. One company we can thank is Elegant Embellishments, which has developed a new system for Manuel Gea González Hospital in Mexico City, one of the world's most polluted cities. It uses Prosolve 370e, a system of thermoformed plastic shells coated in TiO2 (Titanium dioxide).

When sunlight hits the chemically treated surface, it oxidises organic matter; this remarkably turns pollutants into water vapour and CO2. To increase the benefi t of the treatment the modules are shaped to maximise surface area, light reception and wind resistance. Elegant Embellishments champions the facade, creating something as much sculptural as technical and sustainable.

Visit Full Frontal, Facades on Form, curated by SCIN at Architect@Work
21 -22 January
National Hall Olympia, London
scin.co.uk; architect-at-work.co.uk