DRAWING DESTINIES

Some buildings just go on to become landmarks. A well-designed and executed façade can change its fortune

- JAYASHREE KINI MENDES

Façade brings a personality to a building besides embodying the building a character and making it live. It also gives a good impression of the building to an onlooker. But for the façade contractor or the architect, it's necessary that they get the façade right the first time. They don't get a second chance to make a first impression.

An efficient façade design is a seamless integration of architectural aesthetics, structural strength and sustainability. Much thought needs to go into the design, materials and fabrication of the façade before one can call it complete and distinct.

Today, numerous novel materials have come into play to create breath-taking façades - glass, metal, stone cladding, wood, masonry walls, concrete, and mortar plaster, among others. However, the global stress today is on using materials that are sustainable and considers the welfare of the building and its inhabitants.

Arvind Kumar, communication & business development manager, India & SE Asia, Hydro Building Systems, says,

"With more people living in buildings, this implies an increasing energy consumption and thus, skyrocketing CO2 emissions. The urge to rethink our products and processes has been even more challenging with growing pressure coming from regulations from the European and international level with new norms and constraints for carbon neutrality. India, the world's third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, has pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070."