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

Read the story ›

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

Read the story ›

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

Read the story ›

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

Read the story ›

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

Read the story ›

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

Read the story ›

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 Calgary 2026 Canada CanadaTestingAirtightnessAir leakage

Twenty-two milk jugs a minute: what the code lets a wall leak

Mira Saba

ZWOF Los Angeles 2026 United States Curved glassUSAQuality controlGlass fabricationFaçade geometry

Curved glass needs one controlled process

Bob Zhang

ZWOF New York 2025 United States DaylightingGlare controlFritLouversPublic buildings

Layers of light: how façades shape daylight for people

Lee Brandt, Christopher Steffens, Jennifer Sage & Miguel Angel Maldonado

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada GlassCurved glassMaterialsFabrication

Bending glass to shape: multi-curved architectural glass and a Zaha Hadid megaproject

Bob Zhang

ZWOF São Paulo 2025 Brazil BrasilSegundas pelesCobogósSombreamento solarProjeto ambiental

A segunda pele volta como ferramenta climática

Mariana Simas, Rafael Lazzarini, Claudia Araujo & Marcella Carone

ZWOF São Paulo 2025 Brazil Steel façadesFaçade fabricationHigh-span façadesCable façadesSpecial façades

High-span façades need a structural language of their own

Leo Liu

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada DurabilityFenestrationBuilding scienceStep Code

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

Anton VanDyk

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

View all Americas

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 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 Manchester 2026 United Kingdom Building physicsUKZWOF Man 26SustainabilityAirtightness

Move the airtight line outside: condensation and air-tightness

Nick Backhouse

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom ResidentialPublic realmBankside YardsMasterplanning

Bankside Yards makes a tall home part of a mixed city

Dan Clarke & Daniel Moore

ZWOF Manchester 2026 United Kingdom Façade engineeringCurtain wallUKZWOF Man 26Movement

A façade that moves: engineering for deflection

Andrew Bird

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom Tall buildingsHeritageProjectsUKZWOF Lon 25

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

Tom Nancollas

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 Fire safetySteel façadesCurtain wallingHybrid systems

Hybrid steel curtain walls answer demands aluminium cannot always solve alone

Eric Claeys

View all UK

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 Barcelona 2026 Spain Lightweight façadesSpainInsulationDry constructionWall systems

Las paredes ligeras redistribuyen las prestaciones de fachada

Jorge Peña

ZWOF Rotterdam 2026 Netherlands Embodied carbonNetherlandsLow-carbon glassArchitectural glassMaterial specification

Lower-carbon glass is a design variable

Hilal Ucar

ZWOF Tirana 2026 Albania Solar controlAlbaniaFaçade performanceSeismic designSystem design

Performance can reshape the form

Alexander Riemer

ZWOF Tirana 2026 Albania AlbaniaLaminated glassAcoustic glazingInterlayersStructural glazing

One interlayer cannot do every job

Sandro Casaccio

ZWOF Rotterdam 2026 Netherlands NetherlandsAdaptive reuseWhole-life carbonUrban densityValue chain

Carbon decisions extend beyond the building

Boudewijn Thomas, Gideon Maasland, Joris Winters, Mattijs van Ruijven & Stefan Prins

ZWOF Barcelona 2026 Spain Adaptive reuseSpainOffice retrofitClimate responseCircular design

La fachada más verde puede ser la que ya existe

Enrique Molinero & Lars Sorensen

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 Tirana 2026 Albania AlbaniaFaçade designAdaptive reuseMaterial identityWeathering

Material gives architecture its memory

Marco Casamonti

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 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 MaterialsAluminiumSustainabilitySelf-cleaning

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

Fan Lee

ZWOF Tbilisi 25 Georgia Building physicsPerformance mock-upFaçade consultancyResponsibilityDesign to delivery

Mind the gap: carrying façade responsibility from design to site

Thomas Eschenbach

ZWOF Istanbul 2026 Turkey Urban designHeritageRefurbishmentPublic spaceTurkey

Working with heritage by making the waterfront public again

Nicola Scaranaro

ZWOF Istanbul 2026 Turkey Urban designHeritageSustainabilityTurkeyDouble-skin façades

Double skins as a dialogue between context and performance

Gökhan Avcıoğlu

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates ArchitectureAIDubaiInnovation

Architect + AI: ninety per cent usable, ten per cent valuable

Drew Gilbert, Alina Valcarce, Amir Shurafa, Christine Espinosa-Erlanda, Khaled Iskandar, Nic Holmes & Maya Cochrane

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates GlassPerformanceDubaiSustainability

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

Ahmed Abuhashem

ZWOF Tbilisi 25 Georgia GeorgiaPublic realmAdaptive reuseUrban regenerationPlacemaking

Design for good: giving more back to place

Jan Dijkema

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

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 Embodied carbonSolar shadingAustraliaSteel façadesCurtain walling

Cold-formed steel and the case against the unitised curtain wall

Eric Claeys

ZWOF Brisbane 2026 Australia AustraliaBiophilic designShadingTimberResidential façades

Naturalising the façade: from lakefront hills to dancing balconies

James Perry

ZWOF Sydney 2025 Australia Façade engineeringHeritageAustraliaAdaptive reuseWeatherproofing

Adaptive reuse puts façade engineers in the business of proving what already exists

Neil Kendrick

ZWOF Melbourne 2026 Australia GRCFaçade engineeringGlassCurved glass

A veil of curved glass: the Paula Fox Melanoma Centre

Anne-Laure Chappat

ZWOF Sydney 2025 Australia Wind engineeringAustraliaFaçade screeningAeroacousticsTesting standards

Why porous façade screening needs its own wind test regime

Shane Hart

ZWOF Melbourne 2026 Australia Embodied carbonAluminiumArchitectureSustainability

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

Gumji Kang

ZWOF Brisbane 2026 Australia Air barriersAustraliaRainscreenWeatherproofingPressure equalisation

Pressure, drainage and the wall behind the cladding: making rainscreens actually work

Jesse Clarke

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

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 Mumbai 2025 India Façade engineeringProjectsIndiaCostZWOF Mum 25

Bridging vision and reality: the façade of Brigade Gateway Neopolis

Vrinda Shetty & Rajan Govind

ZWOF Ahmedabad 2026 India MaintenanceIndiaPerformance mock-upClimate responseGIFT City

Ahmedabad's tall buildings answer to a glass limit nobody enforces

Mitul Gajjar, Namrata Vaja, Ingit Anand, Pratik Doshi & Vinod Patel

ZWOF Chennai 2026 India Façade engineeringFire safetyCurtain wallBuilding codes

Beyond compliance: what a fire really asks of a high-rise façade

KR Suresh

ZWOF Ahmedabad 2026 India High-riseIndiaClimate responseDesign thinkingFaçade evolution

Four decades of evolving façade design thinking

Reza Kabul

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 DaylightIndiaPerformance glazingShading devicesDouble-skin façade

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

Vrutul Panchal

ZWOF Chennai 2026 India Façade engineeringCurved glassArchitectureAcoustics

Precision by design: keeping faith with the render, all the way to site

Yogesh Tantia

ZWOF Ahmedabad 2026 India BIMIndiaUnitised curtain wallIntegrated sunshadesMixed-material façades

Scaling smart skins: unitised systems with integrated shading and mixed materials

Rohan Keswani

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 ›