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 stage

Topic

Edition

Country

City

Americas

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada RetrofitGFRCBuilding ScienceCommissioning

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

Dale Wannamaker & Timothy Wong

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada Curtain wallArchitectureDesignVancouver

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

Venelin Kokalov

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada Embodied carbonAluminiumSustainabilityVancouver

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

Jordi Marasse

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada Fire safetyCladdingBuilding 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 Los Angeles 2026 United States Embodied carbonUSATerracottaRainscreensMaterial innovation

Terracotta moves beyond decorative cladding

Andrew Pries

ZWOF New York 2025 United States Curtain wallQuality controlCladdingTestingGFRC

A ceramic look in cast concrete: the GFRC façade at 600 West 125th

Joseph Madaghiele & Melissa Wong

ZWOF Phoenix 2026 United States USAPublic realmLow-rise facadesMaterial choicesPreconstruction

Low-rise facades are city-making decisions, not material selections

Diane Jacobs, Sin Hei Kwok, Peter W. Rutti & Cassie Saba

ZWOF Phoenix 2026 United States USAPrototypingHistoric preservationTaliesin WestFabric roofs

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

John Anderson

ZWOF Calgary 2026 Canada CanadaBalcony glazingRetractable glassOutdoor livingClimate buffer

Glazed balconies create an intermediate climate

Mike Vanderveen

ZWOF New York 2025 United States Embodied carbonRetrofitInsulating glassEnergy codesVacuum insulated glass

Less is more insulating: the case for vacuum insulated glass

Justin D’Alessandro

ZWOF Washington DC 2026 United States Adaptive reuseWashington DCDurabilitySustainable facadesSteel windows

Sustainable façades start with long service

Robert Miller

ZWOF Calgary 2026 Canada Adaptive reuseCanadaMuseum façadesDaylightingCultural buildings

Glenbow uses recladding to reopen the museum

Kyle Auch

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UK

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 Manchester 2026 United Kingdom ProjectsUKZWOF Man 26CostPanel

Greater Manchester rising: identity, cost, and who really decides the façade

Giovanni Gori, Daniel Mossman-Clark, Aaron Dehara & Damien Bourke

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom ResidentialBankside YardsMasterplanning

Bankside Yards makes a tall home part of a mixed city

Dan Clarke & Daniel Moore

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom WeatherproofingInterfacesQuality

Façade literacy is a risk-control tool

Rui Monteiro

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom GlassBIPVEPD

Glass data is becoming part of the design material

Moujehed Neffoussi

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom TestingKinetic façadeAdaptive systems

Kinetic façades become a building system

Florian Ebner

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom Unitised façadeStudent 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 CircularityStone reuseUrban quarry

The city can become its own stone quarry

Lefteris Siamopoulos

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom GlassCurved GlassManufacturing

Curved glass moves beyond the mould

Joan Tarrús

ZWOF Manchester 2026 United Kingdom UKZWOF Man 26SustainabilityCarbonDigital

Double or triple glazed? Ramboll's data-driven answer

Amaldev Premkumar

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Europe

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal Embodied carbonRetrofitDecarbonisation

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 Building physicsSolar shadingGlass

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

Robert Weitlaner

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal ProjectsStructural EngineeringStadiums

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

Hugo Tavares

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal Fire safetyLow-CarbonLightweight Facade

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

João Telmo Gabriel

ZWOF Rome Italy Solar shadingRetrofitUnitised façadeCollaborationRAI

RAI Viale Mazzini: aggiornare la facciata senza cancellarne il ritmo

Marco Brambilla & Paolo Franco

ZWOF Barcelona 2026 Spain Fire safetyCircularitySpainVentilated façadesAluminium composite

La fachada ventilada exige alinear cuatro sistemas

Sergi Vargas Torvisco

ZWOF Limassol 2026 Cyprus CyprusArchitectureDesignMediterranean

From the icon to the everyday: façade realities in the Mediterranean

Ioanna Agiomamitou

ZWOF Barcelona 2026 Spain Embodied carbonAluminiumRetrofitSpainLifecycle

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

Juan Grau Iglesias

ZWOF Barcelona 2026 Spain RetrofitNatural ventilationConcrete repairBio-based insulationFrance

Ligereza y masa pueden convivir en una rehabilitación

Miquel Rodriguez

ZWOF Barcelona 2026 Spain Adaptive reuseBarcelonaIndustrial heritageMedia facilitiesTimber

Reutilizar empieza por conservar espacio útil

Esteban de Backer

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal Embodied carbonAluminiumSustainability

Building with intent: where a building’s carbon really is

Guillaume Nijdam & Filip Van Mieghem

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

View all Europe

Middle East, Africa, Turkey & CIS

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates Façade engineeringProjectsArchitectureDubai

TeamLab Phenomena: an envelope asked to keep changing

Tony Abi Gebrayel

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates MaterialsDubaiDurabilityCoatings

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

Prathush Sreedharan

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates GlassWell-beingDubaiResearch

Solar control glass and human well-being: what light does to us

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

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates DubaiEngineeringComputationAccess

Smart façades, smarter access: making freeform geometry buildable, and cleanable

Gizelle Javidan & Shyam Chand

ZWOF Tbilisi 25 Georgia GeorgiaWind engineeringDaylightFacade performancePerformance criteria

Beyond aesthetics: the criteria that make a façade perform

Haldun Yılmaz

ZWOF Tbilisi 25 Georgia High-riseGlass balustradesLife safetyPost-breakageHeat-strengthened glass

A railing is a safety system: designing glass balustrades for high-rises

Necdet Bahadır Buluk

ZWOF Tbilisi 25 Georgia GeorgiaWind engineeringMaterial efficiencyAdaptive façadesTextile façade

Heavier loads, lighter skins: designing façades for Tbilisi’s wind

Mustafa Alkan

ZWOF Tbilisi 25 Georgia GeorgiaSolar controlWind engineeringParametric designCityZen Tower

From fluid form to buildable skin: CityZen Tower in Tbilisi

Manuela Gatto

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates ParametricDubaiSustainabilityEngineering

Parametric modelling for a façade that has to balance everything at once

Jincy Mariam Rinu & Elia Galatolo

ZWOF Istanbul 2026 Turkey Urban designHeritageRefurbishmentPublic spaceTurkey

Working with heritage by making the waterfront public again

Nicola Scaranaro

ZWOF Tbilisi 25 Georgia GeorgiaLaminated glassStructural glassInterlayersBalustrades

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

Anton Novozhilov

ZWOF Riyadh 2025 Saudi Arabia Stone facadeMembrane structuresCable netKinetic roofMiddle East

Three Middle East façades: stone, membrane, and one that disappears

David Sommer

View all Middle East, Africa, Turkey & CIS

Asia-Pacific

ZWOF Melbourne 2026 Australia AluminiumDurabilityCoatingsSelf-cleaning

Clean by sunlight: inorganic self-cleaning anodised aluminium

Fan Lee

ZWOF Melbourne 2026 Australia Façade engineeringComplianceRegulationProfessional Practice

What is a façade engineer? The DBPA scope-and-competency panel

Tom Donald, Gareth Winstanley, Elizabeth Carpenter, Vera Tchikina & Alison Potter

ZWOF Melbourne 2026 Australia CondensationWindowsWeatherproofingWind Load

From risk to resilience: awning windows, wind loads and condensation

Elissa Stirling

ZWOF Melbourne 2026 Australia Building physicsStructural glassCondensationWaterproofing

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

Brian Hubbs

ZWOF Sydney 2025 Australia Fire safetyAustraliaInsulationBuilding regulationsRainscreen facades

Why the ventilated cavity turns cladding fires into a chimney, and what that means for insulation choice

Will Wigfield

ZWOF Brisbane 2026 Australia AustraliaForensic engineeringMass timberFaçade riskInsulating glass

Façade risk is often hidden in movement, moisture and the things standards do not test

Brian Hubbs

ZWOF Melbourne 2026 Australia GRCFaçade engineeringGlassCurved Glass

A veil of curved glass: the Paula Fox Melanoma Centre

Anne-Laure Chappat

ZWOF Melbourne 2026 Australia CladdingSteelPrefabricationTesting

Built for speed: steel cladding that fixes on two sides

Michael Lette

ZWOF Melbourne 2026 Australia Façade engineeringFabricationStructural glassComplex Geometry

The world’s most complex façades: hanging glass and structural trusses

Andreas Geyer

ZWOF Sydney 2025 Australia AustraliaFacade 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 carbonAluminiumArchitectureSustainability

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

Gumji Kang

ZWOF Sydney 2025 Australia AluminiumAustraliaBIPVNet ZeroSolar Facades

Shading elements become generators as solar moves off the roof and onto the facade

Marc Nakhle

View all Asia-Pacific

India

ZWOF Chennai 2026 India SustainabilityFenestrationThermal BreakEnergy Efficiency

Where the heat gets in: the thermal break, now required by code

Abhishek Shukla

ZWOF Chennai 2026 India High-riseFire safetyRainscreenSintered Stone

The tested skin: sustainable cladding for high-rise buildings

TS Aditya

ZWOF Chennai 2026 India Fire safetySustainabilityInsulationPassive Fire Protection

System, not product: what actually gives a façade its fire rating

G Subham

ZWOF Chennai 2026 India Curtain wallSustainabilityAluminium systemsHospitality

The strategic envelope: bespoke engineering, transomless glass and green aluminium

Harsharaj Shetty K S

ZWOF Chennai 2026 India Value engineeringCladdingFacade ConsultingCost & Delivery

Engineering value, not cost: halving a façade’s price without losing its face

Nandakumar BS

ZWOF Chennai 2026 India SustainabilityACPMetal CladdingStandards & Compliance

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

Uday V Shetty

ZWOF Chennai 2026 India WorkplaceArchitectureHuman ExperienceGCC

Experience is everything: designing the workplace from the inside out

Naseera Razak & Aditya Goel

ZWOF Chennai 2026 India Unitised façadesCurtain wallPrefabricationDouble-skin façades

Scaling smart skins: jumbo panels, a cantilevered glass box, and stone on a unitised wall

Rohan Keswani

ZWOF Ahmedabad 2026 India IndiaHigh-rise specificationsPerformance testingFabricator qualityFire compliance

Design considerations, wind, fire and fabricator quality for high-rise façades

Mitul Gajjar

ZWOF Mumbai 2025 India Façade engineeringProjectsIndiaCostZWOF Mum 25

Bridging vision and reality: the façade of Brigade Gateway Neopolis

Vrinda Shetty & Rajan Govind

ZWOF Chennai 2026 India Green façadesBiophilic designSustainabilityKeynote

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

James Tan

ZWOF Ahmedabad 2026 India IndiaMaterial craftCast metalPerforated screensOpen-joint facades

Timeless façades through organic surfaces, crafted patterns and open-joint detailing

KR Suresh

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 ›