Contributor guidelines

What we publish, what we do not, and what happens to a piece after you send it.

Version 2026-09b, in force since 11 September 2026. The reporting clause. It had promised to take a piece down on any report and to pass on who made it; neither was ever how the section works. A report is not a finding, and who reported a piece travels only if they agree to it.

Writing on façades by the people who build them. Anyone may submit, an editor reads everything before it appears, and we do not check the facts. Authors keep the copyright in their own work.

What this section is

Libre by ZWOF is open to anyone with a story, a concept or research on façades: designers, engineers, fabricators, installers, consultants, researchers, students, and anybody else who has worked on one. You write, we read it, and if it is suitable we publish it under your name. There is no charge, and we do not pay.

What we check, and what we do not

An editor reads every submission for suitability: that it is writing rather than advertising, that it is about façades, that it is civil, and that it is your own work.

We do not verify facts. Figures, performance claims, test results, standards, dates, attributions – none of it is checked, and publishing a piece is not an endorsement of anything in it. Every page carries a note saying so. If you state something as fact, it is your name on it.

The note reads: “Contributed by a reader. Zak World of Façades has reviewed this piece for suitability but does not verify the facts, figures or claims in it. The views are the author's own.”

Write it like this

Length

500–1,600 words about 3–8 minutes to read

Card picture

One, required it leads the piece and appears wherever it is listed

Pictures inside

Up to 6 whatever the length of the piece

Picture size

1600 × 900 pixels, landscape (16:9) at least 600px on the long edge, up to 1 MB each

Topics

1 to 3 chosen from the ones we already use

Languages

7 to choose from what you write in is what it is published in

Your allowance

Three pieces published at any one time

• A title, and a standfirst of two or three lines that says what the piece is about.
• Between 500 and 1,600 words – about 3 to 8 minutes to read. Longer than that and people stop finishing it.
• Subheadings as ## Like this on a line of their own.
• A card picture, which leads the piece and appears wherever it is listed. That one is required.
• Then up to 6 pictures in the writing, whatever the length of the piece. You must own them or have permission.
• Picture sizes. Ideal is 1600 × 900 pixels, landscape (16:9), and at least 600px on the long edge – below that it would be stretched on the page. Each file up to 1 MB. The builder gives you a crop tool and scales anything over 1400px down for you, so a photograph straight off a phone is fine.
• At least one topic and up to 3, chosen from the ones we already use. They are how a reader finds your piece once it is not the newest one.
• Write in any of our languages. What you write in is what it is published in.

There is no styling to choose. Contributions render in the publication's own typography, the same as everything else here.

What we turn down

Refused the moment you submit

Four things are refused automatically, the moment you submit, before anyone reads the piece: an email address, a telephone number, a link of any kind, and language we will not print. That applies to captions as well as to the text. It is not a judgement on the writing – it is what keeps this section from becoming an advertising channel. Standards, dimensions and figures are fine: BS 5250, 1400 mm and 0.15 W/m²K are not telephone numbers, and the check knows the difference.

Declined after we read it

These need a person, so you will hear back rather than be stopped at the door.

• Product or company promotion, including a case study that is really a brochure.
• Anything copied from somewhere else, in whole or in part, including AI text passed off as your own.
• Attacks on named people or firms.
• Pictures you do not have the right to publish.
• Anything already published elsewhere, unless you tell us where and why.

What happens after you submit

1. It goes into a queue. Nothing is public at this point.
2. An editor reads it, usually within a week.
3. It is published, or sent back with a note saying what to change, or declined with a reason.
4. You get an email either way, and can see where it stands on your desk.

You may take a piece back at any time before an editor has picked it up. Once something is published, ask us if you want it changed or removed – we keep a record of both.

Pictures, text and who is responsible

You keep the copyright in your own work. What we need from you is a warranty that it is yours to publish, and you are asked to confirm it each time you submit a piece:

• You wrote this, or you have the right to publish it. The text is yours, or you have written permission from whoever owns it.
• You own every picture in it, or you have permission from the photographer, the architect or whoever else holds the rights, and that permission covers publication here.
• Where a picture shows somebody else's building or project, you have whatever consent that requires – a credit is not permission.
• If somebody tells us a picture or a passage here is theirs, it is yours to resolve with them directly. Zak World of Façades did not verify the rights and is not liable for them.

And from us

• We will not take your piece down because somebody reported it. We read every report, and a report is not a finding – an unexamined one is no reason to unpublish your work.
• We will tell you what was said and what we need from you. If a piece has to come off the site while something is resolved, we say so and why, and it can go back up.
• We pass on who reported it only if they have agreed to be named. You are always told what was said.

Put plainly: we do not check who owns a photograph, and we cannot. If a photographer, an architect or a client tells us a picture in your piece is theirs, we look at what they have told us and then we tell you – what was said, and what we need from you. Settling it is between you and them. The piece may come off the site while that happens, and if it does we say so and why.

Your account

You keep the copyright in what you write and grant us the right to publish it here and to link to it. We may suspend an account that is used to promote, to plagiarise or to abuse people; published work stays up unless there is a reason to take it down.

Still unsure about something? The questions page answers 28 of them, including the ones people ask before they sign up. Or go back to the contributions and read what other people have written.

Write for us