Emerging Trends in Architectural Coatings

Global economical and political crisis shake European plans on a sustainable transformation. However, in December 2025, the EU reinforces the climate target to become ‘net zero’ by 2040 and plans an EU Circular Economy act for 2026.

Architectural coatings are essential for both protection and aesthetics in modern construction. This presentation will provide an overview of titanium dioxide fundamentals and its role in coating performance.

We will then introduce recent developments in TMP-free pigments and discuss their potential benefits for sustainability and risk reduction. The focus will be on sharing current developments and practical considerations for future coating solutions.

Will be submited soon.

Facade paints play a crucial role in protecting buildings and structures from environmental influences. They shield against harsh weather conditions, UV radiation, and moisture (EN 1062), prevent structural damage and extend the lifespan of surfaces. A long service life with longer intervals between renovations contributes to sustainability. In addition to very good UV resistance, the aspect of low dirt pick-up is becoming increasingly important, as renovation of heavily greyed facades is often accelerated for aesthetic reasons. The innovative pure acrylic binder can be used in a versatile manner for low-VOC thin-layer as well as thick-layer, crack-bridging facade coatings. The binder exhibits a well balanced property profile with very good moisture resistance, excellent durability and an outstanding dirt-pick up resistance (DPUR).

Cool pigments are emerging as an essential strategy for developing energy efficient, more durable urban surfaces, with reduced thermal stress that can extend coating lifetimes. Chromium Iron Oxide (Pigment Brown 29) pigments demonstrates the most effective balance of high infrared reflectance, stability, and compatibility with sustainable building requirements, outperforming traditional black pigments in mitigating the Urban Heat Island effect and supporting compliance with Green Building standards. Attendees will gain a rigorous, data-driven perspective on why Brown 29 pigments stand as the leading sustainable solution for modern urban environments.

Workshop 1: Low-Carbon Coatings Lab

From Ambition to Action – How Do We Achieve Real CO₂ Reduction in Architectural Coatings?

Workshop 2: Durability vs. Sustainability – Managing Trade-Offs

Green – But for How Long?

Building façades and exterior surfaces are exposed to sunlight, temperature fluctuations, and moisture, driving the aging of paints and coatings. These weathering processes impact not only appearance – such as color, gloss, and texture – but also durability, including adhesion, elasticity, and resistance to cracking or biological growth. Accelerated laboratory weathering, combined with outdoor exposure, is essential to identify weaknesses, qualify new coatings, and estimate service life. This presentation reviews key standards and test methods for exterior architectural coatings, discusses current developments, and compares technologies for their suitability. Finally, quality labels and certifications relevant to exterior applications are introduced.

Architectural coatings producers increasingly face the challenge of achieving consistent color on textured, porous, and multi-color materials while meeting growing sustainability expectations. Traditional spectrophotometers often fail on substrates such as stucco, plaster, masonry, shingles, and decorative multi-color finishes, leading to wasteful trial-and-error processes. Datacolor SpectraVision uses hyperspectral imaging to capture spatially resolved spectral data, enabling accurate, repeatable measurement of even the most irregular surfaces. When paired with our formulation software, manufacturers can achieve right-first-time color recipes that dramatically reduce pigment use, raw substates, and hazardous materials. Improved measurement accuracy helps manufacturers maintain tighter quality control, reducing off-shade production and the environmental cost of waste. This presentation will show how Datacolor supports more sustainable R&D, production, and QC workflows in the architectural coatings industry. Through real-world examples, attendees will see how hyperspectral imaging enables both operational efficiency and meaningful environmental impac

The growing demand for coatings that combine durability, aesthetics, and sustainability requires advanced binder technologies. Acrylic polymers modified with vinyl neodecanoate, often referred to as Veocryls, provide a unique balance of hydrophobicity, UV stability, and film-forming flexibility. Their branched hydrophobic structure imparts intrinsic water resistance, reducing liquid water permeability and increasing service life in demanding exterior conditions. In addition to these performance benefits, these modified acrylics inherently limit biocide leach-out from the coating film and enable low-VOC formulations, supporting the industry’s shift toward more sustainable solutions. These modified acrylics can be produced in conventional, core-shell, and self-crosslinking systems, which expands formulation options for multiple applications. The resulting advantages translate into practical benefits across several segments: wood coatings with proven multi-year weathering resistance, masonry and roof tile coatings with enhanced efflorescence and moisture resistance, and anti-corrosion primers with improved adhesion and salt spray performance. This paper highlights the chemistry–performance- sustainability relationship of these binders and their potential to establish a new benchmark for durable and environmentally responsible waterborne coatings across both architectural and protective applications.

Maximizing the Solar Reflectance (SR) value of a coating while meeting your customer’s expectations for matching color is a balancing act. The keys are finding the proper pigment combinations and application parameters. The presenter shares knowledge gained over twenty years of formulating NIR reflective coatings to guide the listener in achieving that balance. By discussing strategies and test methods while using illustrative case studies, the framework is built for practical and effective high SR color matches applicable to many coatings markets.

State of the art windows consist of two or more glass panes separated by a spacer to reduce heat transfer across the window. Furthermore, they comprise a low emissivity (low e) coating. This is generally a metallic coating packed in a stack of dielectric layers and is applied to the second or third glass surfaces of the window. Low e coatings reflect long wave infrared light originating from indoor heating (radiators). State of the art windows don’t comprise coatings that regulate the short wave solar infrared radiation. TNO’s SunSmart thermochromic coating is applied to the second surface of the window and regulates solar infrared radiation in a dynamic way: on cold days it allows solar infrared radiation to enter the building and contribute to room heating whilst on hot days it blocks solar infrared radiation to prevent overheating of buildings. We will present the impact of the coating on indoor temperature, energy savings and health and wellbeing of occupants.

White pigments for exterior architectural coatings are often TiO2-core particles surrounded by a shell of porous / fluffy silica. Unlike the more common dense / hard silica surface-treatments this porous silica shell is much less mechanically stable and can get damaged if too much stress is applied.
We analyzed such commercially available white pigments with the PowMaster instrument and found that up to 50% of the silica can get sheared off from the TiO2 pigment. This delamination not only results in the loss of the pigment’s performance, but it is also an issue from the regulators’ perspective since those released silica particles are nanoform