A façade, or façade or commonly known as curtain wall, is generally one exterior side of a building, usually the front. It is a loan word from the French façade, which means “frontage” or “face”. A façade in architecture is often the most important aspect from a design standpoint, as it sets the tone for the rest of the building., usually one with doors or windows. Often the word refers to a structure’s front wall with an entrance. Some use façade systems, or constructed segments that attach to a building’s external face like a skin.
A key component of the building envelope is the curtain wall. By definition, the curtain wall is a non-load bearing exterior skin that does not contribute stiffness to the building structure. Key requirements of the curtain wall are to provide/maintain air/water integrity in the cladding system, adequate wind, thermal and seismic response in addition to provide light transmittance to the interior space. The actual constitution of a curtain wall is very important. This curtain wall often is a combination of several system types and combined to express the architectural intent and aesthetically define the building profile. The system schemes may be an all-glazed façade (aluminum framed systems, point-supported systems, cable net systems), an opaque façade (such as precast, natural stone and/or metal panels) or a combination of schemes dependent on the building intent.
