Summer Placement - Façade Engineering

What is Façade Engineering?  

The quality of the 'skin' of your building is about much more than achieving the aesthetic vision, it's about buildability, efficiency and long-term sustainability.  

What makes a façade function properly? Apart from the obvious, like weather resistance, airtightness and making sure it doesn't fall off the building, a big consideration is the energy impact on the building itself. An efficient, buildable façade makes for a better building and we work constantly to provide more efficient skins.  

A thorough knowledge of the way in which façades are constructed means a client can trust us with a project from concept design, through to 'nuts and bolts' of construction, during the operation and maintenance of the façade and all the way through to consideration of refurbishment/re-purposing options. Whether this is for an intricate design such as for the Louvre, Abu Dhabi, or the repurpose of the Grade II Listed The Whiteley, London, we apply engineering and surveying rigour.  

To learn more about our Façades discipline, please click here.  

What sort of projects do the team I work on?  

Whiteleys Redevelopment, London - This interesting multi-use project in a Grade II listed building combines the design of large precast and glazing systems with specialist advice to historic facades. The strength of our advice for both new build and conservation allowed us to support the Client in important planning discussions and to develop innovative glazing solutions that will be a benchmark in years to come for conservation projects. Our team is also closely advising the client in the assessment and monitoring of the historic fabric during construction. This will ensure that future generations will be able to enjoy the significance of the building for years to come.  

Bee’ah Headquarters, UAE  - Dedicated to enabling an environmentally responsible future for the region, Bee’ah advocates revolutionary strategies for utilising renewable energy sources and setting benchmarks for sustainability. The organisation’s new headquarters needed to embody their ethos and vision. Formed to evoke the impression of intersecting sand dunes, the awe-inspiring building features a sweeping curved exterior. By using our previous knowledge of geometrically complex buildings, such as Glasgow Museum of Transport in Scotland, and City of Dreams in Macau, we were able to apply our expertise to realise this striking long span structure. The result draws comparisons with an enormous three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, featuring a system of parallel structural steel ribs that were prefabricated off site. This approach meant that the components could be easily transported and then assembled using typical skills and equipment found on any construction site.  

Which degree could I be studying towards?  

• Façade Engineering 
• Architectural Engineering 
• Civil Engineering 
• Structural Engineering 
• Sustainability 
• Building Physics 
• Architecture  
• Building Surveying  

What would I do?  

• Assist in developing jobs technically from initial client ideas, using various materials such as: aluminium, steel, concrete, stone, glass and timber. Understand architectural component detail design including aesthetics. 
• Deliver work in a timely and technically competent manner. 
• Increase your awareness of basic weather performance issues, basic building physics including ventilation, solar gain control, thermal insulation and glare control. 
• Help assess and advice on the impact of design decisions in terms of embodied carbon, operational carbon and durability/life-cycle.
• Develop your experience of the practical aspects of handling and fabricating typical cladding materials. 
• Understand the design life of various façade components and materials and have the opportunity to inspect existing buildings to understand what failure or a defect looks like. 
• Hone your understanding of international standards and building codes. (For example, British Standards, Eurocodes, International Building Code, UBC, Aluminium Design Manual, Australian and NZ standards, ASTM Standards, Saudi Building Code.) 
• Work with other teams and gain an awareness of the problems and constraints of the other major design disciplines such as Architectural, Structures, Building Services/MEP, Fire Engineering, Acoustics, and computer modelling. 
• Develop strong design leadership on façade issues to the rest of the Client's design team. 
• Maintain good client relations throughout the job. 
• Improve your competency across various software such as Autodesk Robot, STAAD, Strand, SAP2000, MEPLA and Therm.