Ramboll UK's façade engineering team supplies all the engineering and architectural skills needed for the design and installation of high value façades.
These skills include:
- analysis
- specification
- the customisation of commercial systems
- bespoke design and detailing
- testing and performance analysis
An integrated service
The façade team is an integral part of the practice's multi-disciplinary design resources, working closely with architects, structural and environmental engineers, manufacturers and installation contractors to optimize each façade's contribution to overall building performance.
We supply services to all design groups within Ramboll UK and to parts of the Ramboll network, often as part of our standard appointment.
We provide structural teams with a façade review at concept and scheme design stages. We also work with our services colleagues to produce detailed thermal analyses of façades, and with the sustainability group when a façade is to produce solar electricity.
The quality of our work is maintained by our commitment to research — we are constantly involved in full-scale testing and are contributing to UK and European development programmes covering materials, component design and procurement.
Customising commercial systems : maximising performance
The extensive range of façade systems and products available makes informed choice a complex matter. We have developed a knowledge bank of standard systems, allowing clients and project architects to explore possibilities and so compare performance and cost benefits.
Our detailed understanding of competing systems is based on our own performance analyses and tests as well as site experience with specialized installers and contractors. This enables us to work in an informed way with manufacturers, adapting systems to particular contexts so as to optimize performance and reduce risk.
By customizing details and using the interfaces we have developed for connection with frame, slabs and roof, we give clients the benefits of both a commercial systems and a bespoke approach.
Bespoke façades : development in detail
When our clients want a façade that can't readily be produced by adapting an existing system, we design a bespoke solution. We work closely with the architect, incorporating in the concept the possibilities available through current materials and processes.
Our analysis and design expertise enables the detailed development of the façade, including its integration within the overall structure and environmental strategy. We then progress through specification, contractor selection, manufacture and installation — all vital to the delivery of a high quality project.
All our bespoke façades rely on our experience of standard systems and their manufacture, fabrication and installation.