Growth and conservation: designing the City of London's 2040 skyline

The Square Mile has to grow relentlessly and safeguard two thousand years of townscape at once. The City of London Corporation's Tom Nancoll…

Tom Nancollas · City of London

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India

The living façade: when a building’s skin becomes a threshold, not a boundary

In the keynote, James Tan, the Singapore practice behind the Mandai Rainforest Resort, argued that architecture is ecology, and that the faç…

James Tan · WOW Architects

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Americas

Preserving Wright's experiment: redesigning Taliesin West's roof for another generation

John Anderson treats preservation at Taliesin West as continuity of ideas rather than frozen material. A new roof system uses digital survey…

John Anderson · 180 Degrees Design + Build

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Middle East, Africa, Turkey & CIS

TeamLab Phenomena: an envelope asked to keep changing

Tony Abi Gebrayel walks through TeamLab Phenomena on Saadiyat, a building whose envelope was asked to do the one thing façades are not suppo…

Tony Abi Gebrayel · MZ Architects

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Europe

Oriente Green Campus: keep, edit, add, a concrete ruin turned into a campus

John Bushell, Tiago Sallas and Miguel Barbas showed how an unpromising concrete structure became a vital tech campus in Lisbon. By preservin…

John Bushell, Tiago Sallas & Miguel Barbas · Kohn Pedersen Fox · Saraiva + Associados · Norfin

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Asia-Pacific

‘Design a place, not a building’: Harborside’s low-carbon façade

Gumji Kang walks through Harborside in Sydney’s Darling Harbour, a competition-winning reimagining of a tired 1980s shopping centre. From th…

Gumji Kang · Snøhetta

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From the ZWOF stage

Topic

Edition

Country

City

Americas

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada RetrofitCanadaGFRCBuilding scienceCommissioning

Unlocking value in a Brutalist box: whole-envelope thinking and commissioning at the Glenbow

Dale Wannamaker & Timothy Wong

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada Curtain wallArchitectureCanadaDesignVancouver

Ten façades, one question: how do you protect an idea all the way to completion?

Venelin Kokalov

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada Embodied carbonAluminiumCanadaSustainabilityVancouver

Sustainability from every angle: why chasing recycled content is a zero-sum game

Jordi Marasse

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada Fire safetyCanadaCladdingBuilding scienceCombustibility

Playing with fire: why fire safety has to shape the façade from the first sketch

Peter Senez, David Goyne, Claire Yuan, Graham Finch & James Johnson

ZWOF Phoenix 2026 United States USAPrototypingHistoric preservationTaliesin WestFabric roofs

Preserving Wright's experiment: redesigning Taliesin West's roof for another generation

John Anderson

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada CanadaDurabilityFenestrationBuilding scienceStep Code

Kicking the can: why fenestration durability has to be a day-one conversation

Anton VanDyk

ZWOF Los Angeles 2026 United States Embodied carbonUSATerracottaMaterial innovationRainscreen

Terracotta moves beyond decorative cladding

Andrew Pries

ZWOF São Paulo 2025 Brazil BrazilAdensamento urbanoFachadas ativasVento pedonalPlano Diretor de São Paulo

O adensamento muda a envoltória na escala da rua

Alexandre Daud, Marcelo Ignatios, Marcelo Nudel & Rubens Czeresnia Taragona

ZWOF New York 2025 United States Curtain wallUSAPhotovoltaic façadesEnergy generationNFPA 285

262 Fifth Avenue: wrapping a tower core in photovoltaic glass

Diego Cuevas, Carmelo Guido Galante, Leo Henke & Yan Torres

ZWOF Washington DC 2026 United States USAWashington DCFire testingNFPA 285ASTM E2307

Fire testing has to assess assemblies

Daniel A. Martin

ZWOF Los Angeles 2026 United States Curved glassUSAQuality controlGlass fabricationFaçade geometry

Curved glass needs one controlled process

Bob Zhang

ZWOF Washington DC 2026 United States USAWashington DCPrefabricationPanelised façadesFRP composites

Prefabrication turns façade design into production

Reginald Truxon, Dean Mouritzen & Andy Loff

View all Americas

UK

ZWOF Manchester 2026 United Kingdom HeritageProjectsUKSustainabilityCarbon

Reimagining Tate Liverpool: opening up a heritage warehouse without trapping moisture

John Ross & Chiara Faliva

ZWOF Manchester 2026 United Kingdom ProjectsUKZWOF Man 26PlacemakingRegeneration

Shaping everyday wonder: regrowing Manchester

Lucy Head & Daniel Onions

ZWOF Manchester 2026 United Kingdom UKZWOF Man 26SustainabilityCarbonResilience

The power of ten: AHR's ten steps to a more resilient façade

Robert Hopkins

ZWOF Manchester 2026 United Kingdom ProjectsTerracottaUKZWOF Man 26Acoustics

Heritage at height: engineering a terracotta tower on Whitworth Street

Paul Crowther & Elena Giraldi

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom Unitised façadesHigh-riseUKStudent housingOff-site manufacture

Chapter Living turns origami into a buildable unitised façade

Alex Miller, Daniele Norbiato, Phil Sedge & Umut Bülbül

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom UKDurabilityColourPowder coatingBio-based materials

Powder coatings are starting to carry their own carbon strategy

Jimi Ogunsola

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom Fire safetyComplianceUKFRAEWExternal walls

External wall appraisal is becoming a permanent building record

Paul Phillips

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom UKCeramicsDigital fabricationXi’anCraft

Embedding emotion at Xi’an CCBD

Alexis Harrison, Maela Allegretti & Nick Ling

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom Closed-cavity façadeWorkplaceUKUser experienceDaylighting

User experience can drive a lower-carbon façade

Frank Filskow & Jonathan Walker

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom ArchitectureAdaptive reuseUKDurabilityLongevity

Designing façades that can survive changing ideas

Simon Allford

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom UKEngineeringLow-carbonSystems thinkingKPF

When component innovation plateaus, systems thinking takes over

Shawn Duffy

ZWOF Manchester 2026 United Kingdom Fire safetyBuilding safetyComplianceUKZWOF Man 26

Getting through the gateways: what the Building Safety Regulator actually wants

Sean Robinson & Craig Renton

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Europe

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal Embodied carbonRetrofitAdaptive reusePortugalDecarbonisation

Transformar edifícios: porque a reabilitação, e não a demolição, é a chave da descarbonização

Liliana Soares, Cláudia Sousa Monteiro, André Caiado, Marcus Cerdeira & Rodrigo Félix

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal Closed-cavity façadeBuilding physicsSolar shadingGlassPortugal

Thermal behaviour in closed cavities: why a low g-value isn’t enough

Robert Weitlaner

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal ProjectsCladdingPortugalStructural engineeringStadiums

Engenharia da pele dos maiores estádios da Europa: Bernabéu, Everton e Camp Nou

Hugo Tavares

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal Fire safetyCladdingLow-carbonPortugalLightweight façade

Reinventar a pele do edifício: da fachada pesada à envolvente leve em gesso

João Telmo Gabriel

ZWOF Barcelona 2026 Spain Adaptive reuseSpainOffice retrofitClimate responseCircular design

La fachada más verde puede ser la que ya existe

Enrique Molinero & Lars Sorensen

ZWOF Rome Italy Life-centric designDouble skinPublic spaceMASEWell-being

La facciata come spazio da vivere: tre progetti che partono dalle persone

Alessandro Terzi

ZWOF Barcelona 2026 Spain Digital twinsAutomationSpainConstruction roboticsWorker safety

Los robots cambiarán el trabajo de fachada antes de sustituirlo

Miguel Ángel Núñez Díaz, Alexandre Dubor, Jorge Escribano Troncoso, Julen Astudillo Larraz, Meritxell Moyà Vilalta, Mr. Pepper & Xabier García Rodríguez

ZWOF Rotterdam 2026 Netherlands Embodied carbonFaçade engineeringNetherlandsDigital fabricationTimber construction

Carbon-driven façade engineering needs to start early

Marc de Winter & Rouven Nieuwenburg

ZWOF Barcelona 2026 Spain Embodied carbonAluminiumRetrofitSpainLifecycle

Las fachadas de bajo carbono exigen controlar todo el ciclo de vida

Juan Grau Iglesias

ZWOF Tirana 2026 Albania AlbaniaFaçade designAdaptive reuseMaterial identityWeathering

Material gives architecture its memory

Marco Casamonti

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal IdentityComplex geometryCompositePortugalStadiums

Arena Liga Portugal: uma bola, um campo verde, e uma fachada hexagonal difícil de fabricar

João Simões, João Jesus, Pedro Rodrigues, Pedro Pinhal & Jorge Gonçalves

ZWOF Rotterdam 2026 Netherlands AutomationNetherlandsDigital fabricationFaçade deliveryAerospace technology

Aerospace thinking can accelerate façades

Mourad El Garci

View all Europe

Middle East, Africa, Turkey & CIS

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates Façade engineeringProjectsArchitectureDubaiUAE

TeamLab Phenomena: an envelope asked to keep changing

Tony Abi Gebrayel

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates MaterialsDubaiDurabilityCoatingsUAE

Where surfaces shape skylines: building a coating to beat the benchmark

Prathush Sreedharan

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates GlassWell-beingDubaiResearchUAE

Solar control glass and wellbeing: optimised for energy, not for us

Benjamin Beer, Arwa Alzaabi, Jasmin Hodzic, Renato Cilento & Subraya Kalkura

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates DubaiEngineeringComputationAccessUAE

Smart façades, smarter access: panel families and a worker’s reach

Gizelle Javidan & Shyam Chand

ZWOF Istanbul 2026 Turkey TurkeyComputational engineeringSimulationStructuralWind

Hesaplamalı cephe mühendisliği: modelden üretime tek veri akışı

Ibrahim Ayaz

ZWOF Tbilisi 25 Georgia GeorgiaMock-upsRenderingSpecificationGlass appearance

Render versus reality: predicting a glass façade before it is built

Karim Amrouche & Ahmet Mumcuoğlu

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates ProjectsDubaiSustainabilityDeliveryUAE

Net zero and climate resilience: the façade on a risk register

Nandan Tavkar

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates MaterialsAluminiumSustainabilitySelf-cleaningUAE

Self-cleaning aluminium: an anodised skin that uses sunlight to stay clean

Fan Lee

ZWOF Riyadh 2025 Saudi Arabia BIMSaudi ArabiaProcurementSupply chainEarly engagement

Why the façade contractor belongs in schematic design

Faisal Alghamdi, Marwan Abbas, Samer Mohammed Abdullah, Waleed Elsayed, Jafar Abualrob & Bassam Hilal

ZWOF Istanbul 2026 Turkey Adaptive reuseTurkeyMixed useRetailFlexible façades

Perakendeden karma kullanıma: değişen program için esnek cepheler

Enis Öncüoğlu

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates DubaiInnovationEngineeringKinetic façadesUAE

kinetIQ: making the façade move

Ralph Damköhler

ZWOF Tbilisi 25 Georgia GeorgiaLaminated glassStructural glassInterlayersBalustrades

The safety is in the interlayer: laminated glass in heat and salt

Anton Novozhilov

View all Middle East, Africa, Turkey & CIS

Asia-Pacific

ZWOF Manila 2026 Philippines Façade consultancyBuilding codesPhilippinesTyphoon loadingSpecifications

Half the wall operable, in a city where nobody opens a window

Desiree Manlapaz, Theodore Khoury, Daniel C. Go, Adam Lee & Myra Zamora

ZWOF Manila 2026 Philippines Unitised curtain wallPhilippinesAluminium extrusionsStructural optimisationEmbodied energy

Two numbers in a specification that cost a quarter of the metal

Adam Lee

ZWOF Manila 2026 Philippines Curtain wallStructural siliconePhilippinesDurability testingLife cycle cost

Eighteen years on a 440 metre tower: what the joint still does

Michael Zhang

ZWOF Manila 2026 Philippines Embodied carbonParametric designDigital fabricationUnitised curtain wallPhilippines

From three panels to thirteen hundred, without an Excel sheet

Jack Cruzado

ZWOF Melbourne 2026 Australia Building physicsAustraliaStructural glassCondensationWaterproofing

A pool with a view: keeping water out, in, and off the glass

Brian Hubbs

ZWOF Brisbane 2026 Australia ETFETimber structuresLightweight façadesWeather testingAircraft hangars

Air New Zealand’s Hangar 4: a 98-metre timber span under ETFE

Angus Macleod

ZWOF Sydney 2025 Australia AustraliaFaçade procurementSupply chainQuality assuranceOffshore manufacturing

Buying façades offshore rewards the teams that do the homework first

Michael O'Reilly, Winnie Sun, Tran Van Tien & Giuseppe Michael Schmidt

ZWOF Melbourne 2026 Australia Embodied carbonAluminiumAustraliaArchitectureSustainability

‘Design a place, not a building’: Harborside’s low-carbon façade

Gumji Kang

ZWOF Melbourne 2026 Australia AustraliaCladdingSteelPrefabricationTesting

Built for speed: steel cladding that fixes on two sides

Michael Lette

ZWOF Bangkok 2026 Thailand PlacemakingStone façadesThailandHong KongPublic roofscape

The roof you can walk on: designing façades as public ground rather than elevation

Richard Wood

ZWOF Manila 2026 Philippines Mixed usePhilippinesExpressive formOffice towersPassive cooling

What actually decides the shape: six projects, six constraints

David Zaballero

ZWOF Bangkok 2026 Thailand High-riseSeismic designCurtain wallingBuilding movementFaçade testing

Seismic damage to façades comes from movement, not collapse

RV Kheem N. Domingo

View all Asia-Pacific

India

ZWOF New Delhi 2026 India Artificial intelligenceIndiaDesign for disassemblyHospitalityBrand identity

Designed to come off: the hotel façade with a twenty-year life

Vibhakar Jha, Shubham Solanki, Sushant Verma & Harsh Thapar

ZWOF New Delhi 2026 India Value engineeringClimate-responsive designIndiaGlazingAir quality

What a city hands a façade when it hands it every variable at once

Gautam Bhasin, Harsh Varshneya, Bhavin Mehta, Nazia Iqbal & Rakesh Thakur

ZWOF New Delhi 2026 India High-riseFire safetyIndiaRainscreenSintered stone

Sintered, not tiled: what a high-rise asks of a ceramic panel

TS Aditya

ZWOF New Delhi 2026 India Laminated glassIndiaInterlayersStructural glazingMaterial authentication

Coupling, not thickness: what actually sets a laminate's deflection

Allan Gibson

ZWOF New Delhi 2026 India Embodied carbonIndiaCurtain wallingWind loadWindow hardware

Innovation on demand: what a project extracts from its supplier

Raghunandan Reddy

ZWOF Chennai 2026 India Green façadesBiophilic designIndiaSustainabilityKeynote

The living façade: when a building’s skin becomes a threshold, not a boundary

James Tan

ZWOF New Delhi 2026 India Embodied carbonFire safetyIndiaCladdingProduct certification

A panel maker's argument for a floor stricter than the code itself

Uday V Shetty

ZWOF Ahmedabad 2026 India IndiaDurabilitySustainabilityPowder coatingCorrosion protection

Coating durability as the sustainability case for powder-coated façades

Deepak Parameswaran

ZWOF New Delhi 2026 India Fire safetySolar shadingIndiaCladdingRainscreen

What Delhi's temperature swing asks of a laminate cladding panel

Ashwanii Khanna

ZWOF Chennai 2026 India IndiaSustainabilityACPMetal claddingStandards & compliance

Metal cladding, held to account: speed, standards and the EPD

Uday V Shetty

ZWOF Mumbai 2025 India Façade engineeringIndiaAirportsDaylightingRoof systems

Simple systems, concentrated complexity: the envelope logic behind the Navi Mumbai terminal

Ashwin Shah

ZWOF Chennai 2026 India ResidentialMaterialsValue engineeringArchitectureIndia

The face of the building: visual impact and climate, on a realistic budget

Prashanth S Kharche

View all India

Games Daily façade puzzles

Clad·5Guess the five-letter façade word. GroupsSort sixteen terms into four groups. Build-UpOrder the wall layers, outside in.

Interviews

All interviews ›

Interview · The Faces of Façades

The hidden people behind every building

Ahad Ahmed built Zak World of Façades from a single event in a Delhi coffee shop into a platform that now runs in more than 50 countries, yet he calls himself a reluctant speaker, an accidental founde…

Read the interview ›