What is Glass Façade Technology?

The building skin is a vitally important architectural consideration. No other building system combines as significant an impact to both a building’s performance and aesthetic. The use of glass as a component of the building envelope has been increasing since its initial introduction as a building material, accelerate in the twentieth century owing to the development of high-rise steel framing systems and curtain wall cladding techniques. Little has changed in the core technology of glass Curtain Walls and façades since their initial development. Much has changed, however, in the building arts in the past decade alone in terms of aesthetic and performance drivers, as well as in available Structural Curtain Walls System in Pune and materials. In response to these market forces, new glass facade types have emerged in spot applications over the past two decades.

These new façade designs play off the primary attribute of glass, its transparency, and increasingly off the structural properties of glass and the integration of glass components into the structural system. As a body, a case can be made that the completed works represent a new façade technology. Characteristics of this technology include;

• Highly crafted and exposed structural systems with long-spanning capacity,

• Integration of structure and form,

• Simultaneous dematerialization and celebration of structure,

• Complex geometries, extensive use of tensile elements,

• Specialized materials and processes,

• An integration of structure and ACP Cladding System In Pune,

• A complex array of design variables ranging from facade transparency to thermal performance,

• Bomb blast considerations

The push by leading architects for transparency in the building envelope has historically been the primary driver in the development of the new façade types. The façade structures have developed in parallel with the development and application of frameless or point-fixed glazing systems. While any type of Spider Glazing system in Pune can be supported by the new façade structures, the point-fixed systems are the most used. Structural system designs with minimized component profiles were desired to further enhance the transparency of the façade. This led to structure designs making extensive use of tensile structural elements in the form of rod or cable materials. A structural element designed only to accommodate tension loads can be reduced significantly in diameter over a similar element that must accommodate both tension and compression loads.

These new façade types have evolved primarily in long-span applications of approximately 20 ft (6m) and over, and can perhaps be best categorized by the various structural systems employed as support. While these facade structure types are derived from the broad arena of structural form, they have become differentiated in their application as facades. Identifiable classes of cable trusses and cable nets are example of such structure types.