Façade Performance and Aesthetics

By Editorial Staff - 3 November 2020
Cosentino has participated in the project

Façades are critical elements in any design, playing a host of roles that range from separating and protecting, to significantly boosting the building’s energy efficiency while also guaranteeing healthy, comfortable interiors. A façade can blend into the surrounds, or deliberately stand out, by drawing on local stylistic features or intentionally upturning them. At the same time, a façade often has symbolic importance or “represents” the building - and the people or company who built it.

Any decision about a façade becomes a balancing act of design, mechanics and performance.

This is the backdrop in which the
Cosentino group works, bringing a series of materials and solutions to the table of architectural design, with options for both new constructions and upgrades, and a client list that is truly global.

For example, Lagasca 99 is an innovative residential complex designed by Rafael de La-Hoz in Salamanca, the pulsating heart of Madrid. Here, the spectacular façade makes a statement in the local urban surrounds, with a series of large, vertical fins defining the façade and providing shade for the glazed sections behind.

As these vertical elements vary in height, they add dynamism to the appearance, an effect that is bolstered through the material contrast between the glass and the fins, made of travertine and wood.

These visual differences in the façade seem vaguely random from the outside, but actually relate to the interior use, with full-height glazing for the living areas, stone fans for the bedrooms and wooden fans for kitchen areas.

The combination of high ceilings and large windows creates spectacular, intriguing spaces that are flooded with light and provide delightful views of the city.

The 330 monumental stone fins - each weighing about 2,200 kg - were made of natural stone travertine from Cosentino’s quarry in Almeria, Spain. The shape and positioning were carefully studied to provide protection, privacy and comfort for the spaces in the Lagasca 99 building.

Other Cosentino materials - especially Dekton and Silestone - were also chosen for the interior communal areas and some sections in the actual apartments, particularly because such materials are aesthetically pleasing and durable.

444 N. Orleans is a building in Chicago, in a completely different context. Here, one of the greatest challenges architects face is the weather, with the temperature swinging from nearly 90° F in the summer, to as low as -20° F in the winter, when cold winds blow down from Canada and literally freeze the city.

Given this, the architects chose to create the new ventilated façade across a corner and base section with Dekton, an ultra-compact material from Cosentino that can handle significant temperature variations, high humidity and extensive exposure to UV rays.

The chosen color for the project - Aura 15 - is white with grey veins, a deliberate allusion to the natural surrounds of Lake Michigan, with its often-frozen surface in winter.

The use of a single, continuous vein makes the façade more spectacular, with rare visual impact.

Dekton is not only incredibly durable, but it is also resistant to things like scratches, which has become a key aspect for building façades in urban areas.