Contemporary

The world of façades is in constant evolution. We can consider a façade conventional in terms of the order of layers, but unconventional in terms of building construction techniques and materials. The main sheet is a discontinuous structure that allows insulation to be enclosed in its thickness. The inner finishing is also resolved over a discontinuous structure. Only the rendering is still rendering, although an analysis of its composition and benefits reveals that innovation has also had an impact here.

Years after the construction of the AC hotel in the Forum area, the one in Sants was built. The construction solution adopted for the rainscreen façade is practically the same in both cases. Again, a lightweight enclosure is employed when the use demands low thermal mass solutions. Again, a reinforced frame supporting the window is the structure required to release an opening in this unidirectional façade structure.

In this case study, we want to emphasize the construction solution applied on the façades and the roof: an ETICS system coated with ceramic tiles. 

The RBA headquarters are not included here to talk about the project as a whole; an analysis that would allow us to highlight very positive aspects. Instead, our focus is the façade and its lack of sincerity.

The two longitudinal façades of the lower volume are articulated from a grid that reproduces the rhythm of the concrete structure. It is not the true “structure” that we see. The façade enclosure covers pillars and slab edges from the outside, hiding them from sight.

Beyond the geometric complexity of Libeskind’s architecture, we want to draw attention to this curtain wall without transoms that closes the double height entrance hall of the Grand Canal Theatre.

The objective is to enhance the verticality of the plane through relatively close mullions and the absence of transoms. Unfortunately, the black sealing cord takes on unexpected protagonism among a tangle of white profiles, clear glass and most of the finishes in the hall, which are also white.

The curtain wall that closes the large openings of this public library is solved by seeking the neutrality we spoke about in "Steel mesh reinforced ETICS (019)" in reference to the ETICS solution.

The architects used an ETICS solution for the façade of this public library in Sant Gervasi. Formally, the solution is very appropriate. The continuous coating provided by the mortar rendering defines a series of abstract volumes as an extension of Villa Florida’s garden. 

It is difficult to understand the need for building this thick, load bearing, cast in-situ concrete wall hidden behind a light cladding composed of different layers: mineral wool, coloured ribbed plates and glass slats. On the inside, the concrete wall is again hidden, on this occasion by furniture. The climbing formwork system that made this wall possible had to be successively cut to adapt to the changes in the diameter and curvature of the tower. The preparation of the reinforcement must have been equally difficult.

Mecanotubo is one of the façade industries that invested heavily in the late 1990s in Catalonia to provide a unitary response to the rainscreen façade.

They opted to adapt stick curtain wall technology to this two-layer façade. As in the Carburos Metalicos façade, the resulting inner sheet provides enough water tightness to consider a drainage cavity, and consequently an outer layer, unnecessary. Here the outer layer acts only as a covering.

If the inner layer of the rainscreen façade at the Hotel AC was innovative, the proposal for the neighbouring office tower for the Zona Franca Consortium was even more so. Again, the exterior image is a sober stone skin anchored over aluminium profiles. However, on this occasion the inner layer made of boards over steel framing was prefabricated and arrived at the site as panels.