Pellini is an Italian company specialising in shading systems designed for heat, light and glare control. For the SMARTeeSTORY project, it has supplied roller shades for demo sites together with a model-based control logic with a reduced amount of room sensors, which are unnecessary or just required at commissioning stage. The idea behind the automation is to perform, on a micro-scale, live simulations being able to quantify daylighting contribution, glare probability, solar protection, visual contact and user intervention.
To be at the forefront of technology in the field of automation of technical blinds, Pellini has invested in in-house engineering and production departments of mechanical and electronic components with the aim of combining tailor-made electronic solutions and motorisation with advanced shading system hardware. This integrated approach has enabled the company’s solutions to be adopted in challenging international buildings as well as in other EU-co-funded projects, such as:
- ENERGYMATCHING, aimed at developing and demonstrating a set of building skin solutions conceived to provide a multiple answer in terms of energy harvesting, adaptability, enhanced aesthetics and multifunctionality of the active skin solutions;
- MEZeroE (standing for “measuring envelope products and systems contributing to the next generation of healthy nearly-zero-energy buildings”), whose main vision is to create buildings that harmonise with their surroundings, prioritise occupant well-being and minimise environmental impact.
For Pellini, talking about personalisation in shading systems does not only mean developing customised models that meet clients’ specific requirements: due to the multiplicity of situations in which they operate, shading systems must adapt to conditions that cannot be forecast in advance, based on the way user’s needs may change over the lifetime of a building. Inside the company, the “goldfish story” is a popular illustration in this regard.
The goldfish theorem
In an apartment in France, there were five windows equipped with a shading system. Usually, the objective is to have blinds working in unison, and this was also the case in the flat, with the exception of one blind that remained closed to protect a goldfish whose bowl was placed below. In the logic of the shading function of that house, the fish was an important factor, but it was also something that could not have been predicted in advance, and which required a personalised approach when it comes to automation.
For Pellini it is fundamental that systems be as flexible as possible, to respond to issues of personalisation that are not just a matter of heat and light gains, but also of real life as a whole.
