Simple profiles

It is not easy to classify such a singular façade. It is also difficult to analyse it with the pragmatic parameters we normally use on this platform. The façade is that of a Concert Hall, a piece of ice on the Reykjavik coastline that needs to be understood in its singular context and for its specific use.

Some cladding panels offer many possibilities. In these single-family houses in Palma, the panels used for the outer layer of a rainscreen façade are perforated in the terrace space to define an umbraculum. There is no change of material and the composition of prisms remains nearly unaltered; it is simply a matter of lattices.

Again, this Catalan studio proposes a clear and simple façade. The dry constructed façade is based on three layers: the main one resolving air and water tightness, an inner cladding and an outer one. It might be thought that the façade works properly just with the main sandwich layer (like the Courts extension in Zaragoza).

This hotel in Barcelona illustrates the typological confusion of contemporary façade systems and justifies the need for a taxonomic tool such as the one organised by this platform.

The Forum Building façade has hardly been discussed, perhaps because it was eclipsed by other buildings in the same area and by other aspects of the Forum Building itself. However, after fourteen years, this risky lightweight solution has been successfully integrated into the city’s landscape. The original electric blue has slightly dulled, at the same time as a salty dust patina has added enriching nuances.

In the ventilated façade of the Institut Geològic de Catalunya (IGC), the inner layer responds to the window distribution that the use of the building requires and the outer layer responds to formal aspects. The perforated corten sheet that clads the entire façade provides an abstract image, behind which domesticity is solved. The perforated metal sheet shows a drawing and plays with transparencies: it is a rich composition resource that is possible in multilayer façades.

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.

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.

The AC Hotel was one of the first buildings in Barcelona in which a ventilated façade system was used with a light inner layer made of cement boards over metal folded sheet profiles. 

Since then, these systems have evolved to provide a clearer solution regarding  the continuity of the thermal insulation and air tightness. This is achieved by improving the solution in the slab edge and with the adequate treatment of joints.