External envelope
Façade elements, engineered against the building that carries them.
Façade elements fail at their fixings, their joints and their drainage long before they fail as objects. We engineer the element and the way it meets the building at the same time.
Our façade work covers architectural elements within the envelope: cast and moulded panels, screens, canopies, soffits, feature cladding and the brackets, restraints and details that hold them.
Scope
What the package covers.
Typical applications
- Feature cladding panels and rainscreen elements
- External screens, fins and brise-soleil
- Entrance canopies and soffits
- Podium and retail frontage elements
- Parapets, copings and crowning detail
- Pavilion and exhibition envelopes
Design inputs required
- Elevations, sections and envelope details
- Structural information at the support zones
- Design criteria for wind load and movement
- Waterproofing line and drainage strategy
- Finish specification and colour references
- Access strategy for installation and maintenance
Interfaces we resolve
- Curtain walling and glazing junctions
- Waterproofing continuity and flashing details
- Support steel, restraints and movement allowance
- External lighting and cable routes
- Roof, parapet and soffit terminations
- Sequence with the main envelope contractor
Sequence
How the work runs.
- 01
Constructability review
Where the design is not yet buildable, we set out what has to change and why.
- 02
Survey and setting-out
Structural survey and setting-out grid for the element package.
- 03
Shop drawings and engineering
Panelisation, fixing design, movement and weathering details.
- 04
Samples and mock-ups
Finish samples and a visual mock-up where the elevation justifies it.
- 05
Production
Manufacture in the appropriate material, with inspection against the approved sample.
- 06
Logistics
Delivery sequenced to elevation and craneage windows.
- 07
Installation
Bracket setting-out, installation, sealing and inspection.
- 08
Handover
Record drawings, maintenance information and close-out of observations.
Control
Where the risk actually sits.
The interface is drawn before the element is priced
We agree in writing what we hold and what the envelope contractor holds, at every junction, before manufacture begins.
Survey against the built structure
External elements are set out against a survey of what has actually been built, not the design grid, and the fixings are designed with the resulting tolerance in mind.
Weathering resolved on the drawing
Where water goes at every joint, upstand and horizontal surface is resolved on shop drawings and agreed with the design team before production.
Before pricing
What we need to see.
Send what exists today. We will tell you what is still required rather than price around the gaps.
- Elevations, sections and envelope details
- Structural and loading criteria
- Scope split with the envelope contractor
- Finish specification
- Access, craneage and programme constraints
- Site location and prevailing conditions
Evidence
Projects from the register.
Questions
What clients ask about this scope.
Related
Where to go next.
Send your specification
Send the drawings and the specification.
Send the package drawings, the specification and the programme date. We will confirm what is buildable as drawn, what needs development and what we would need to see before pricing.