Contemporary

Very narrow, large cladding pieces are attached longitudinally. The high number of horizontal profiles that are needed is increased by the fact that two adjacent plates do not always share fixing profiles, as in the lattice area. Therefore, the need for profiles is practically doubled in these parts of the façade.

A very suitable but expensive solution.
 

Wood has broken into the local construction sector to stay. Proof of this is that architects no longer boast of using it, to show that they undertake responsible, sustainable work. Instead, they use it because it is the most appropriate material to meet certain design requirements.

What an amazing solution! Covering the façade with an EPDM membrane like a padded jacket or a “boatiné coat”. It’s so obvious, but not common! I only remember one similar solution on the back façade of the Frei Photographic Studio in Weil am Rhein, by Herzog & de Meuron. They also used a waterproof membrane, on that occasion made of asphalt, for the cladding.

It is not easy to solve the façade construction of a building when this facade is supposed to be placed between the edges of the slabs, and yet the slabs all have different perimeters. The distance between a point on the edge of a slab and the equivalent point on the upper slab is therefore always different.

Here we refer to a solution of the kind in the study "Profiled metal sheets for the free design of continuous enclosures". These enclosures reach from the façade to the roof and resort to the same construction system, with on-site profiled metal sheets as the main ally.

It is always a pleasure, in a world that tends toward the hyper-technological, to get back to historical constructional solutions, that when carefully considered, coherently combine different local resources: both natural and processed.

This solution is a cavity wall. A double wall where the interior, made with concrete blocks, is part of the main structure of the building; while the exterior, built with Marés stone, needs only to be self-supporting and is stabilized against the inner wall.

They maintain the same façade structure while its performance is improved by using in the renovation contemporary techniques and systems.

This residential building is an example of our nowadays most common way of building, not only in terms of the materials and systems being used, which we consider appropriate, but also in terms of the lack of precision in the execution. 
We want to draw particular attention to the indefiniteness of the drainage space behind the ceramic outer layer. How different from the drawings is the execution!! Fortunately, the horizontal joints are overlapped.

Sober and spectacular coherence in this example where the structural system articulates the whole.
This case helps us to illustrate these facade solutions based on the sum of the "windows". See the case study Façade of windows.

Unlike stone, pressed ceramic tiles or any kind of artificial panels of board type, extruded terracotta elements can easily be three-dimensional, due to the manufacturing process. Unfortunately architects do not always take advantage of this possibility, even though terracotta is a common material in façade claddings.  Here is a good example of its 3D possibilities!

And observe these difficult corners where three-dimensional elements can show their hollowness! A good challenge!