post detail page top

Webinar on “Designing and Building High-Rise & Ventilated Rainscreen Façades”

By:

We at WFM Media organised our first webinar for the Middle East region on 7th July 2020 on “Designing and Building High-Rise & Ventilated Rainscreen Façades”. This webinar, powered by Fischer Middle East, saw a large number of interactive participants and caught the attention of the industry members, architects, façade consultants, contractors, builders, developers, etc. We received more than 1000 registrations.

The idea behind organising such webinars is to create awareness about issues that are relevant to the field of façade & fenestration and also help the companies to disseminate their knowledge and to showcase their products.

The webinar was hosted by Amit Malhotra and Ahad Ahmed, Co-founders of F&F Media and Publications

Below are the topics and a detailed introduction to the speakers:

Agnes Koltay mentioned that the main difference between the high-rise and low-rise buildings is the quantity of the material that goes or supplied for the façade of the buildings. She also told that the low-rise buildings are much more accessible and easier to install materials than the high-rise buildings. For high-rise buildings, the prefabrication would be the preferred method to bring materials together and install them on the building.

High-rise buildings have a certain behaviour as a response to external impact like wind, earthquake, etc. High-rise buildings have their natural movement in these conditions so the façade is structured by considering these effects, but in low-rise buildings, there are no such complications in designing the façades for them. She said that the movement of the structure also created a big difference between low-rise and high-rise buildings.

TOPIC: Special Aspects of Designing and Building High-Rise Façades

• How the high-rise and low-rise approach differs?
• Integration of performance aspects
• What to watch in concept design
• Materials and systems typical to high-rise construction (and what to avoid)

Mostafa Elhosseiny spoke about fixing systems that are very important for high-rise as well as lowrise buildings. He described the factors that should be considered to choose the fixing materials for the façade that include façade material thickness, offset from the wall, and type of the wall. He also described some major challenges that are faced when using the fixing systems while installing the façade.

He explained the solutions offered by Fischer that can help in making the fixing job easy. He spoke about the universal mechanical systems offered by Ficher that can be used in fixing thin, as well as thick façade materials, including ceramic, porcelain tiles, natural stone, HPL, fibre cement, and cast stone. He explained the working process of the system.

Muzaffer Ahmed Syed explained the need for fire consideration in façades. If the façade is exposed to fire, the façade system loses structural integrity that results in falling of burning objects which might pose a massive risk of injuries and can ignite a secondary fire. To elaborate it clearly, he showed some real incident pictures of buildings that caught fire.

He talked about the Abbco Tower, Sharjah, which recently witnessed the fire incident, and because of improperly sealed perimeter joints/cavity perimeters/untested materials, it caused lives and a huge liability loss. He also talked about the curtain wall and ventilated façades, and explained the fire safety challenges in both the façade systems and reasons for fire spreads in both.

TOPIC: Modern Design of Ventilated Rainscreen Façade

• The next-generation systems for façade fixing
• Fixing solutions for thin façade member
• Various options for concealed fixing
• Fire stopping in façades