Jordi Marasse frames aluminium facade systems through two linked questions: how much carbon is invested in materials now, and how effectively the envelope reduces operational demand while remaining reusable, repairable and recyclable later.
Carbon priorities can conflict
High-performance windows and curtain walls can reduce heating and cooling loads, particularly in cold climates, but more material and more complex systems can also increase embodied carbon. Marasse treats this as a design trade-off rather than a reason to favour one metric. The appropriate facade depends on climate, use, expected service life and the carbon intensity of the energy supplying the building.
Circularity starts in design
Material recycling is only one part of circular design. Marasse highlights reuse, design for disassembly, waste reduction and supply-chain management. Aluminium is valuable because it can be recycled repeatedly, but the facade only captures that value if profiles, gaskets, glass and hardware can be separated rather than becoming a composite waste stream.
Testing anchors sustainability
Sustainability claims still have to coexist with structural, air, water and thermal performance. Marasse points to extensive system testing as a way to verify that lower-carbon or more circular approaches do not compromise the basic duties of the enclosure. Local testing capacity also matters when code requirements and climatic loads differ between markets.
Preserve aluminium value
Aluminium's circularity case rests on the fact that the metal can be remelted repeatedly, but a building facade can either support or obstruct that loop. Profiles that are mechanically connected and clearly separable from glass, gaskets and hardware are easier to recover than assemblies that rely on irreversible bonding or mixed-material composites. The design of corners, pressure elements and replacement parts therefore has an end-of-life consequence even though those details are usually discussed only in terms of weathering and installation.
The same thinking applies before demolition. If a sash, infill or hardware set can be replaced independently, the system can remain in service while local components are renewed. Circularity then becomes a maintenance strategy rather than a distant recycling promise. Marasse's argument is that the most sustainable aluminium is not simply the profile with the highest recycled content; it is the profile that performs efficiently, stays useful for a long time and remains recoverable when its first use finally ends.
Cold climates need accounting
High insulation levels and thermally improved frames reduce operational demand, yet each extra layer or component also adds material. In a cold climate, the balance can still favour very high facade performance because heating loads are significant, but the correct answer depends on actual energy source, orientation, window area and service life. A project that uses low-carbon electricity will reach a different optimum from one dependent on carbon-intensive heat. Testing provides the discipline needed to keep this debate practical. Air, water, structural and thermal performance cannot be traded away in pursuit of a circularity label. A system that leaks or requires early replacement will not deliver the carbon model assumed at design stage. For Marasse, sustainability therefore sits inside normal facade engineering: quantify the material, reduce energy demand, detail for repair and disassembly, and then verify that the system still performs in the climate where it will be used.
