ABSTRACT
The actual final detailing of the facade is getting so specialised, especially on large and tall buildings, that architect's local Council is unlikely to have the specialist knowledge on how to evaluate the weathertightness of the proposal. Increasingly, therefore, ‘facade engineers’ are being brought onto projects to design, to help, or to peer-review the facade designs. While contractors are becoming more and more involved at running the project in general, this reaches a peak with the involvement of the facade contractors. Understandably, therefore, the specialist facade contractors are extremely sought after, with often only one major contractor per country. Some of the outcomes of the facade testing is that a more in-depth understanding of the issues around water-proofing is evolving. Some of these water-proofing issues are already well known. Unitised facade components are an obvious shining example of the advantages to constructing offsite and just assembling on-site.
