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 São Paulo 2025 Brazil Senna TowerFachadas de edifícios altosEngenharia de ventoEngenharia de fachadasBrasil

Senna Tower: transformando a jornada do herói em uma envoltória superalta

Stéphane Domeneghini

ZWOF New York 2025 United States Construction outlookLocal Law 11InfrastructureWorkforceNew York

A $219 billion cycle: where New York’s façade work comes from

Carlo A. Scissura

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada GlassMaterialsVisualizationRendering

A clear vision of the future: predicting how glass will really look, before it’s built

Ravneet Saini & Martin Durivage

ZWOF New York 2025 United States Design technologyDaylightingGame enginesPerformance simulationCFD

From renderings to real time: running façade decisions through a game engine

John Ivanoff

ZWOF Calgary 2026 Canada Embodied carbonCanadaCircularityAluminium façades

A zero-sum game: why recycled aluminium is not the answer on its own

Jordi Marasse

ZWOF Calgary 2026 Canada Quality controlCanadaDurabilityRainscreen

Not a façade system: the building’s primary environmental control

Jeff Ker

ZWOF Calgary 2026 Canada CanadaComplex geometryCivic architectureMass timber

A velodrome made civic: straight timber, a twisted skin and no sloped insulation

Michael Henderson & Michael Dub

ZWOF São Paulo 2025 Brazil BrasilConsultoria de fachadasIndustrializaçãoControle solarEnsaios de fachada

Consultoria de fachadas transforma complexidade em sistemas executáveis

Igor Alvim

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UK

ZWOF Manchester 2026 United Kingdom HeritageProjectsSustainabilityCarbon

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 CeramicsDigital fabricationXi’anCraft

Embedding emotion at Xi’an CCBD

Alexis Harrison, Maela Allegretti & Nick Ling

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom Digital fabricationQuality assuranceFaçade coordinationSliding doors

Complex façades depend on one coordinated model

Roger Schaerer & Thang Vo

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom ComplianceBuilding Safety ActGateway 2Golden thread

Building Safety Act lessons are becoming new design practice

Aaron Dehara, Alasdair Mealey, Anna Dziekonska-Ramage, Anri Doda, Lesley Lawson, Peter Goff & Stephen Tanno

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom ComplianceBuilding Safety ActCollaborationCompetence

Building safety changes the definition of competence

Russell Cole & Neville Grunwald

ZWOF Manchester 2026 United Kingdom High-riseResidentialProjectsArchitecture

Form, colour, texture: three residential towers on two Manchester sites

James Hind

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom Laminated glassStructural glassTraceabilityInterlayers

Structural interlayers are also a carbon and traceability decision

Allan Gibson

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom EngineeringLow-carbonSystems thinkingKPF

When component innovation plateaus, systems thinking takes over

Shawn Duffy

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom ReuseAdaptive reuseTransformationPublic architecture

Turning a central bank back into a public building

Francine Houben

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Europe

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal Embodied carbonRetrofitAdaptive reuseDecarbonisation

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 shadingGlass

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

Robert Weitlaner

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal ProjectsCladdingStructural engineeringStadiums

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

Hugo Tavares

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal Fire safetyCladdingLow-carbonLightweight façade

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

João Telmo Gabriel

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal Solar shadingProjectsSustainabilityGeothermal

A building you can see being sustainable: the diamond ‘veil’ of Fidelidade’s new headquarters

Timothy Poell, Miguel França Santana & Pedro Appleton

ZWOF Barcelona 2026 Spain HeritageUrban identityCircularityBarcelona architectureDecarbonisation

Las fachadas de Barcelona deben equilibrar memoria y cambio

Jordi Torres Quintana, Albert Sagrera Cuscó, Jordi Vilà Alsina, Luis Delgado, Maria Cedó & Pablo Garrido

ZWOF Barcelona 2026 Spain RetrofitNatural ventilationConcrete repairBio-based insulationFrance

Ligereza y masa pueden convivir en una rehabilitación

Miquel Rodriguez

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 Tirana 2026 Albania AlbaniaBuilding safetyMaintenanceFaçade accessReplacement strategy

Access belongs in façade design

Pat Duffy, Silvia Ilardi & Sofía Galán Rivera

ZWOF Barcelona 2026 Spain Green façadesBarcelonaUrban retrofitParty wallsSolar energy

Las medianeras pueden convertirse en fachadas urbanas activas

Maria Buhigas San José

ZWOF Limassol 2026 Cyprus CyprusCeramicsVentilated façadesAnchorage

Stoneware, ventilated: a façade as a system, not a product

Roberto Sprocati

ZWOF Barcelona 2026 Spain Fire safetyCircularitySpainVentilated façadesAluminium composite

La fachada ventilada exige alinear cuatro sistemas

Sergi Vargas Torvisco

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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 wellbeing: optimised for energy, not for us

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

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates DubaiEngineeringComputationAccess

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

Gizelle Javidan & Shyam Chand

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates GlassPerformanceDubaiSustainability

A few stickers will not do it, and the standard is not enough either

Ahmed Abuhashem

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates ProjectsDubaiSustainabilityDelivery

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

Nandan Tavkar

ZWOF Tbilisi 25 Georgia GeorgiaPublic realmAdaptive reuseUrban regenerationPlacemaking

Design for good: giving more back to place

Jan Dijkema

ZWOF Istanbul 2026 Turkey Adaptive reuseTurkeyMixed useRetailFlexible façades

Perakendeden karma kullanıma: değişen program için esnek cepheler

Enis Öncüoğlu

ZWOF Istanbul 2026 Turkey Solar controlParametric designAluminiumTurkeyNatural ventilation

Parametrik alüminyum kanatlar: biçimden önce yerel performans

M. Vedat Sancakdar

ZWOF Riyadh 2025 Saudi Arabia Membrane structuresCable netKinetic roofMiddle EastStone façades

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

David Sommer

ZWOF Istanbul 2026 Turkey DurabilityColourTurkeyPowder coatingFinishes

Mimari toz boyada uzun ömür: renk kararından sistem spesifikasyonuna

Beyza Sarıeyyupoğlu

ZWOF Riyadh 2025 Saudi Arabia Saudi ArabiaCoordinationWeatherproofingAir tightnessFaçade interfaces

Where façades fail: the gaps between the trades

Miguel Costa Freire & Moutaz Kaddourah

View all Middle East, Africa, Turkey & CIS

Asia-Pacific

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 Bangkok 2026 Thailand Solar controlPassive designBalconiesThailandGreen wall

Shade, not cooling: three Bangkok projects that cut solar load at the envelope

Taj Phitakraxanti Tandem

ZWOF Bangkok 2026 Thailand Value engineeringConstructabilityFaçade designCollaborationThailand

Bangkok's façade weaknesses lie in expectation and sequencing, not in technology

Cory M. Ticktin, Phaithaya Banchakitikun, Assawin Choochottavorn & Andrew Snalune

ZWOF Bangkok 2026 Thailand Quality controlThailandOptical distortionGlass defectsHeat treatment

The gap between allowable and acceptable in architectural glass

Andrew Snalune

ZWOF Sydney 2025 Australia Solar shadingParametric designAustraliaFaçade designTerracotta façades

Environmental performance stops hiding behind the glass tower

Marko Damic

ZWOF Bangkok 2026 Thailand Façade engineeringMuseum architectureThailandCurved glazingFire-rated façades

Curved glass and locked-down galleries: the façade logic behind an open art depot

Achim Heinzle

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 AluminiumDurabilityCladdingTimber look

The beauty and longevity of aluminium: timber-look metal

Allan Ramsay

ZWOF Sydney 2025 Australia Wind engineeringAustraliaFaçade screeningAeroacousticsTesting standards

Why porous façade screening needs its own wind test regime

Shane Hart

ZWOF Bangkok 2026 Thailand Seismic designQuality controlProcurementCurtain wallingBuilding movement

Why façades must be designed to move, and why the lowest bid rarely shows what is missing

Rajan Govind

ZWOF Sydney 2025 Australia AustraliaSolar control glassElectrochromic glazingBuilding-integrated photovoltaicsLow carbon buildings

Coatings, dynamic tints and façade-integrated PV, working as one low-carbon system

Anthony Breach

ZWOF Brisbane 2026 Australia ETFETimber structuresLightweight façadesWeather testingAircraft hangars

A 98-metre timber hangar under ETFE: reducing joints, moving loads and controlling light

Angus Macleod

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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 Mumbai 2025 India High-riseRetrofitFaçade designComplex geometryIndia

Adaptive design, inside-out planning and buildable geometry: three towers designed to be delivered

Jose Claudio Silva

ZWOF Ahmedabad 2026 India DaylightIndiaPerformance glazingShading devicesDouble-skin façade

From carved stone jalis to performance glass: shading devices in Indian façades

Vrutul Panchal

ZWOF Mumbai 2025 India Embodied carbonLaminated glassMaterial traceabilityIndiaBalustrades

Why the choice of interlayer decides how far structural glass can go

Jennifer Schneider

ZWOF Mumbai 2025 India Fire safetyIndiaFaçade regulationPassive fire protectionPerimeter barriers

Building for safety: why compliant intent arrives as a painted sheet

Gautam Bhasin, Santosh S. Warick, Alok Decruz, Nandita Agnihotri, Apurba Maity & Vicky Vora

ZWOF Chennai 2026 India ResidentialMaterialsValue engineeringArchitecture

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

Prashanth S Kharche

ZWOF Ahmedabad 2026 India IndiaSintered stoneDry claddingVentilated façadeHigh-rise cladding

Ventilated dry cladding and sintered-stone systems for high-rise applications

TS Aditya

ZWOF Ahmedabad 2026 India Laminated glassIndiaStructural interlayersSentryGlasTrosifol

Structural interlayers and sustainability advances in laminated glass

Malvinder Singh Rooprai

ZWOF Mumbai 2025 India Embodied carbonFaçade integrationIndiaUnitised systemsSmart façades

Integration, safety and carbon: three pressures reshaping the façade envelope

Harsharaj Shetty K S

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 ›