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 ZWOF stage

Topic

Edition

Country

City

Americas

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada RetrofitCanadaGFRCBuilding scienceCommissioning

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

Dale Wannamaker & Timothy Wong

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada Curtain wallArchitectureCanadaDesignVancouver

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

Venelin Kokalov

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada Embodied carbonAluminiumCanadaSustainabilityVancouver

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

Jordi Marasse

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada Fire safetyCanadaCladdingBuilding 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 New York 2025 United States Curtain wallUSAQuality controlCladdingTesting

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

Joseph Madaghiele & Melissa Wong

ZWOF Washington DC 2026 United States USAWashington DCCavity barriersCurtain wall fire safetyPerimeter containment

Curtain-wall fire safety needs continuity

Peter Schmitt

ZWOF Los Angeles 2026 United States Embodied carbonUSATerracottaMaterial innovationRainscreen

Terracotta moves beyond decorative cladding

Andrew Pries

ZWOF New York 2025 United States Artificial intelligenceComputational designDigital twinsEnergy modellingAutomation

From concept to operation: AI's place in the built environment

Alfonso Oliva, Dan Reynolds, Veronica Quintero, Andres Roncal & Emir Pekdemir

ZWOF Los Angeles 2026 United States USAFaçade performanceWhole-life carbonResiliencePeak loads

Whole-life thinking reframes façade performance

Gijs Libourel

ZWOF Vancouver 2026 Canada CanadaVancouverMass timberBuilding sciencePanelization

A skin with no floor lines: layering a mass-timber façade to move like feathers

Brad Carmichael

ZWOF New York 2025 United States Embodied carbonUSAMass timberCircularityCultural buildings

Timber, weathering steel and a spirit of place: the Springsteen archive

Zach Craun

ZWOF Los Angeles 2026 United States Embodied carbonCurtain wallUSAStructural siliconeGlazing systems

Structural silicone can reduce façade metal

Frank Zhong

View all Americas

UK

ZWOF Manchester 2026 United Kingdom HeritageProjectsUKSustainabilityCarbon

Reimagining Tate Liverpool: opening up a heritage warehouse without trapping moisture

John Ross & Chiara Faliva

ZWOF Manchester 2026 United Kingdom ProjectsUKPlacemakingRegeneration

Shaping everyday wonder: regrowing Manchester

Lucy Head & Daniel Onions

ZWOF Manchester 2026 United Kingdom UKSustainabilityCarbonResilience

The power of ten: AHR's ten steps to a more resilient façade

Robert Hopkins

ZWOF Manchester 2026 United Kingdom ProjectsTerracottaUKAcoustics

Heritage at height: engineering a terracotta tower on Whitworth Street

Paul Crowther & Elena Giraldi

ZWOF Manchester 2026 United Kingdom Façade engineeringCurtain wallUKMovement

A façade that moves: engineering for deflection

Andrew Bird

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom ComplianceUKBuilding 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 Unitised façadesHigh-riseUKStudent housingOff-site manufacture

Chapter Living turns origami into a buildable unitised façade

Alex Miller, Daniele Norbiato, Phil Sedge & Umut Bülbül

ZWOF Manchester 2026 United Kingdom Fire safetyBuilding safetyComplianceUK

Getting through the gateways: what the Building Safety Regulator actually wants

Sean Robinson & Craig Renton

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom Embodied carbonGlassUKEPDsBIPV

Glass data is becoming part of the design material

Moujehed Neffoussi

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom Building physicsQuality controlUKAirtightnessMembranes

Airtightness is a small layer with a large consequence

Matthew Owen

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom GlassCurved glassComplex geometryUKManufacturing

Curved glass moves beyond the mould

Joan Tarrús

ZWOF London 2025 United Kingdom UKDurabilityColourPowder coatingBio-based materials

Powder coatings are starting to carry their own carbon strategy

Jimi Ogunsola

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Europe

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal Embodied carbonRetrofitAdaptive reusePortugalDecarbonisation

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 shadingGlassPortugal

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

Robert Weitlaner

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal ProjectsCladdingPortugalStructural engineeringStadiums

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

Hugo Tavares

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal Fire safetyLightweight façadesCladdingLow-carbonPortugal

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

João Telmo Gabriel

ZWOF Limassol 2026 Cyprus GRCCyprusMaterialsFaçade designCladding

GRC: the strength of concrete without its limitations

Michalis Vrachimis

ZWOF Lisbon 2026 Portugal BIMProjectsCeramicsUrban regenerationPortugal

Do Braço de Prata à frente ribeirinha: uma fachada cerâmica que reinterpreta o azulejo

Ivo Henriques & Luís Gamboa

ZWOF Barcelona 2026 Spain Adaptive reuseSpainOffice retrofitClimate responseCircular design

La fachada más verde puede ser la que ya existe

Enrique Molinero & Lars Sorensen

ZWOF Rotterdam 2026 Netherlands NetherlandsMaintenanceDurabilityPowder coatingMetal façades

Coatings need a life-span strategy

Gerd De Lathauwer

ZWOF Rome Italy Fire safetyItalyFibre cementCavity barriersInsulation

La facciata ventilata come sistema integrato: rivestimento, isolamento e sicurezza antincendio

Giuseppe Pugliese

ZWOF Rome Italy AluminiumFaçade geometryItalyACPForming

When vision meets ACP: shaping aluminium around architecture rather than flattening the idea

Efthimios Zizos

ZWOF Limassol 2026 Cyprus CyprusTestingVentilated façadesRainscreenAluminium systems

The hidden half of a rainscreen: sub-structure as a kit of parts

Andreas Reinhardt

ZWOF Tirana 2026 Albania AlbaniaBuilding safetyMaintenanceFaçade accessReplacement strategy

Access belongs in façade design

Pat Duffy, Silvia Ilardi & Sofía Galán Rivera

View all Europe

Middle East, Africa, Turkey & CIS

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates Façade engineeringProjectsArchitectureDubaiUAE

TeamLab Phenomena: an envelope asked to keep changing

Tony Abi Gebrayel

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates MaterialsDubaiDurabilityCoatingsUAE

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

Prathush Sreedharan

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates GlassWell-beingDubaiResearchUAE

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 DubaiEngineeringComputationAccessUAE

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

Gizelle Javidan & Shyam Chand

ZWOF Tashkent 2025 Uzbekistan Parametric designPrefabricationUzbekistanExoskeletonConstruction tolerances

The node that could move six hundred millimetres

Paolo Matteuzzi

ZWOF Tashkent 2025 Uzbekistan Fire safetyBuilding codesUzbekistanSeismic glazingConformity assessment

Один пункт на весь фасад

Olga Kudrevich, Botir Dusatov, Dmitry Shcherbitsky & Ekaterina Urizchenko

ZWOF Tbilisi 25 Georgia GeorgiaBuilding physicsPerformance mock-upFaçade consultancyResponsibility

Mind the gap: carrying façade responsibility from design to site

Thomas Eschenbach

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates ProjectsDubaiSustainabilityDeliveryUAE

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

Nandan Tavkar

ZWOF Dubai 2026 United Arab Emirates DubaiInnovationEngineeringKinetic façadeUAE

kinetIQ: making the façade move

Ralph Damköhler

ZWOF Tbilisi 25 Georgia GeorgiaTbilisiHeritageTraditional typologyBaniani

ტრადიციული ტიპოლოგია წარსულის კოპირების გარეშე

Otar Sulaberidze

ZWOF Istanbul 2026 Turkey Building envelopeTurkeyEngineeringMaterial scienceHigh-performance façades

Malzemeden kabuğa: yüksek performanslı cepheyi yaşam döngüsüyle düşünmek

Esra Aydınoğlu, Buğrahan Şirin, İlayda Öner Mermerbaş & Demet Sürücü

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 Manila 2026 Philippines Façade consultancyBuilding codesPhilippinesTyphoon loadingSpecifications

Half the wall operable, in a city where nobody opens a window

Desiree Manlapaz, Theodore Khoury, Daniel C. Go, Adam Lee & Myra Zamora

ZWOF Manila 2026 Philippines Unitised curtain wallPhilippinesAluminium extrusionsStructural optimisationEmbodied energy

Two numbers in a specification that cost a quarter of the metal

Adam Lee

ZWOF Manila 2026 Philippines Curtain wallStructural siliconePhilippinesDurability testingLife cycle cost

Eighteen years on a 440 metre tower: what the joint still does

Michael Zhang

ZWOF Manila 2026 Philippines Embodied carbonParametric designDigital fabricationUnitised curtain wallPhilippines

From three panels to thirteen hundred, without an Excel sheet

Jack Cruzado

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 Façade engineeringArtificial intelligenceAustraliaBuilding safetyBird-safe design

Façade design as imagination bounded by competence

Robert Moisy

ZWOF Melbourne 2026 Australia Solar shadingAustraliaPublic realmSustainabilityClimate resilience

Six of nine boundaries crossed: designing for the planet, not only for people

Viggo Haremst

ZWOF Sydney 2025 Australia Façade engineeringAustraliaRegulated designsDesign and Building Practitioners ActProfessional indemnity insurance

Regulated designs, not just weatherproofing: what the DBP Act now asks of façade practitioners

John Perry, Jonathan Lynch, James Perry, Vera Tchikina & Simon Gray

ZWOF Hong Kong 2025 Greater China Curved glassStructural glassCoatingsHong KongTempering

What the oven decides about a curved pane

Joan Tarrús

ZWOF Brisbane 2026 Australia Air barriersAustraliaRainscreenWeatherproofingPressure equalisation

Behind the rainscreen: the layers that actually shed the water

Jesse Clarke

ZWOF Sydney 2025 Australia AustraliaPrefabricationSteel façadesRainscreenNCC compliance

A steel cassette panel detailed for rainscreen walls, and why the drawings come first

Jess Lindsay

ZWOF Sydney 2025 Australia Façade engineeringHeritageAustraliaAdaptive reuseWeatherproofing

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

Neil Kendrick

View all Asia-Pacific

India

ZWOF New Delhi 2026 India Artificial intelligenceIndiaDesign for disassemblyHospitalityBrand identity

Designed to come off: the hotel façade with a twenty-year life

Vibhakar Jha, Shubham Solanki, Sushant Verma & Harsh Thapar

ZWOF New Delhi 2026 India Value engineeringClimate-responsive designIndiaGlazingAir quality

What a city hands a façade when it hands it every variable at once

Gautam Bhasin, Harsh Varshneya, Bhavin Mehta, Nazia Iqbal & Rakesh Thakur

ZWOF New Delhi 2026 India High-riseFire safetyIndiaRainscreenSintered stone

Sintered, not tiled: what a high-rise asks of a ceramic panel

TS Aditya

ZWOF New Delhi 2026 India Laminated glassIndiaInterlayersStructural glazingMaterial authentication

Coupling, not thickness: what actually sets a laminate's deflection

Allan Gibson

ZWOF Mumbai 2025 India Embodied carbonLaminated glassMaterial traceabilityIndiaBalustrades

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

Jennifer Schneider

ZWOF Ahmedabad 2026 India High-rise façadesIndiaUnitised curtain wallGIFT CityForm development

Designing high-rise façades across a portfolio from 45 to 153 metres

Brijesh Shah & Nitesh Shah

ZWOF New Delhi 2026 India Structural glassIndiaRetail designStaircasesGlass engineering

Glass asked to carry the load rather than fill the opening in it

Sushant Goel

ZWOF Ahmedabad 2026 India IndiaBuilding movementCold-bent glazingUnitised systemsMuseum architecture

The International Co-operative Museum: cold-bent glazing, one degree a floor

Vicky Vora

ZWOF New Delhi 2026 India RefurbishmentIndiaDurabilityStructural siliconeCold bending

Ninety per cent at twenty-five years: what an old seal is worth

Ravishankar Subramanian

ZWOF Ahmedabad 2026 India IndiaDurabilitySustainabilityPowder coatingCorrosion protection

Coating durability as the sustainability case for powder-coated façades

Deepak Parameswaran

ZWOF New Delhi 2026 India Solar shadingIndiaMixed useCurtain wallingRetail design

Where a Noida block keeps its rectangle and spends its curves

Nisar Ahmed Shaikh

ZWOF Mumbai 2025 India Fire safetyIndiaCladdingSintered stoneTesting standards

Fire class and UV grading decide whether a cladding panel belongs on a tall building

TS Aditya

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 ›