Introduction

“Façade Engineering is the art of resolving aesthetic, environmental and structural issues to achieve the enclosure of habitable space.”

With the ever increasing complexity and performance demands on buildings, there is a need to accurately validate the design and communicate the client and designers’ intentions to those who have a responsibility for executing the façades of modern buildings.

Our Engineers are proactive members of the design team and are able to help deliver best value to projects by being fully involved in the early iterative strategic stages.

The façade of a modern building is one of the most expensive and important elements of building construction and can represent up to 35% of construction costs. Façades represent the manifestation of the Architect’s expectation of the external appearance of a building. They are the primary environmental modifier and are the element that have the greatest level of historic failure.

With the implementation of new and more onerous energy requirements, the design of façades must be part of a holistic strategy. In particular science needs to be carefully considered to deal with aspects such as façade performance and energy conservation. There now needs to be consideration of issues such as predictive thermal modelling techniques, testing, lighting and acoustic engineering, added to existing issues of durability, sustainability and structural engineering to drive best value for clients. The blurring of the boundaries is recognised in the fact that the energy conservation and statutory compliances are now a matter of balance between the disciplines.

Wintech is unique in that across the Group it provides project-specific consultancy and systems design services. This broad level of pragmatic experience and technical expertise adds relevance and value to façade consultancy services aimed at reducing cost and improving quality of as built façade.

As the nature of building façades takes on ever greater importance, so proportionally does the level of technology involved. The pressure for change is probably greater than for any other element of a building