About Facades
- What do facade engineers do?
- What is the background of a façade engineer?
- What value can façade engineers contribute to a project?
- How does the façade engineer’s activity differ from other engineers’ tasks?
- How to involve a façade engineer in your project?
What do facade engineers do?
Façade engineers concern themselves with everything to do with a building's external envelope.
Façade Engineers will consider the performance of materials and systems in various respects:
- Weathertightness – air permeability, watertightness and resistance to wind load
- Structural behaviour
- Interaction with the primary structure
- Occupant comfort
- Energy efficiency
- Sun shading
- Condensation
- Durability
- Sustainability
- Natural light admittance
- Fire behaviour of the building envelope
- Security
- Safety and serviceability
- Maintenance and buildability
Façade engineers provide advice on both existing and new buildings. They may be involved during different design stages, working in an interdisciplinary team alongside the architect and the engineers from other fields, or may work within the manufacturing and/or construction phase.
What is the background of a façade engineer?
Façade engineers come from a range of backgrounds but most usually civil engineering, architectural or building physics. In order then to become a facade engineer, they have then developed a wider breadth of cladding skills and a deeper knowledge than they would encounter within their original discipline.
Many façade engineers will be generalist façade engineers. These are able to advise across the full range of materials, systems and performance types.
Specialist façade engineers will typically first have attained a level of knowledge across all façade types and then have chosen to specialise in one particular aspect of façade engineering.
Examples are façade engineers whose emphasis is in building envelope physics, using analytical modelling skills; or façade engineers that specialise in a particular cladding material such as stone or glass.
A general practice façade engineer is the one who could assess the particular circumstances of a client’s individual project and advise on façade specialists that may be needed.
What value can façade engineers contribute to a project?
- Performance led design. Delivering facades that do what is required of them!
- Excellence in design
- Risk control
- Driving cost out
- Continuity through fabrication and installation stages
- Attention to quality as the design becomes a physical reality
- Verifying performance
- Troubleshooting when problems occur. Cladding performance when the occupants move into the building.
How does the façade engineer’s activity differ from other engineers’ tasks?
Facades have become complicated beyond the skills of architects, structural and mechanical engineers.
Facades require a dedicated engineer with a particular range of skills and experience, who understands their behaviour and can undertake their design, manufacture and installation better, more efficiently and more comprehensively than can a traditional architect, structural or mechanical engineer.
How to involve a façade engineer in your project?
Interview several candidate façade engineers in order to match their particular emphasis to the needs of your project.
Insist upon individuals holding FEA Membership.
Involve façade engineers early in order to gain maximum benefit from their input.