Building Facades

Building Facades

The Role of Facades in Construction

Facades play a fundamental role in building bodies because they delimit the interior environment from the exterior, determining the (thermo-acoustic) comfort of the interior spaces and influencing the architecture of the exterior context in which they fit.
Thus, for the construction of a façade, the focus is on both aesthetic enhancement and energy conservation.
Today, thanks to technological advances, there are multiple façade construction systems that are attentive to both components.

Facades: comparing technologies

The vertical enclosures of a building can be made with traditional systems, that is, solutions in which the perimeter wall is protected by a layer of insulation (cladding system) or in which the cavity is made within the wall system. Such solutions, while simple and effective in terms of thermal insulation, could lead to problems over time such as degradation of the outer face and poor breathability of the wall.
Facades can also be made from panels, transparent or opaque, connected through a metal support structure to the load-bearing element of the building. The advantage of this system lies in the possibility of protecting the supporting element from external weathering and regulating the entry of solar radiation.
"Curtain wall," or curtain wall in which a continuous transparent surface (often glass) is connected to the supporting structure, can be used. This solution has a high functional complexity because it has to perform the tasks that are traditionally performed by the perimeter wall and exterior window frames. It is generally a solution widely used in Nordic countries that need to maximize solar energy input.
A solution halfway between curtain walls and cladding systems is ventilated walls, a multilayer system that allows "dry" installation of cladding elements, taking advantage of mechanical anchors and leaving an air space between the supporting structure and cladding.
The peculiarity of ventilated facades lies in the 'empty space' left between the wall and cladding capable of generating convective motions, promoting the breathability of the building. In addition, the ventilation layer combined with the insulating material makes it possible to reduce heat loss in winter and avoid heat accumulation in summer.