Ceramic Façade Cladding: Why Architects Choose It

Ceramic has long been the material underfoot. Increasingly, it's also what architects wrap around a building. Large porcelain stoneware panels are hung on a metal frame a few centimetres off the wall to form a ventilated façade: a light outer skin that protects and insulates the building while giving it a finished face.

How a ventilated façade works

The panels are fixed mechanically to an aluminium frame, which leaves an air gap in front of the insulated wall. Air warmed in the gap rises and escapes at the top, a "chimney effect" that carries away heat and moisture. Because the panels are fixed without adhesive, the system works on new buildings and for re-cladding existing ones.

The advantages

• Cooler, more efficient buildings: the outer skin takes the sun and the air gap keeps heat off the wall.

• Built to last: porcelain stands up to sun, rain, frost, smog and chemicals.

• Low maintenance: it absorbs almost no water, doesn't hold dirt and needs no special treatments.

• Moisture under control: the moving air dries out condensation, protecting the wall and the insulation.

• Design freedom: large formats with few joints, finishes that look like stone, concrete, wood or metal, and visible or hidden fixings.

• Easy repairs: a damaged panel can be replaced on its own.

Why it suits Lebanon

With strong sun and long, hot summers, keeping heat off a building's walls means less work for air conditioning, which matters wherever every kilowatt counts. The same skin also protects the building through wet, humid winters.

Progetti represents Italian manufacturers including Casalgrande Padana, whose porcelain stoneware clads ventilated façades from the Humanitas campus near Milan to the UAE Pavilion on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island. Talk to our team about formats, finishes and fixing systems for your next project.

Source: Casalgrande Padana · ventilated façade projects

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