As commercial buildings of the mid-20th century dwindle in market appeal, it’s often their facades that are showing their age. Technical components fail; contemporary performance expectations outstrip what earlier materials and methods achieved; a change of program calls for a change of look; an aesthetic expression no longer appeals to the market. Meanwhile, the core structure typically remains sound, and the resources it embodies—energy and carbon emissions, money, labor—retain their value. For a growing number of buildings, recladding can help reap fresh value from structure and site, improve performance and marketability, and launch a whole new lease on life.
Recladding has long been a way to upgrade energy efficiency, save on structural material costs, and architecturally rebrand, says Will Babbington, principal with structural engineer and facade design firm Studio NYL, but the greater flexibility and fewer unknowns associated with new builds have typically tipped the balance in favor of new construction—until recently. “Now increased awareness (and verification) of energy performance and embodied carbon have led to these factors’—along with occupant comfort—becoming design drivers that compare in importance with cost and aesthetics,” Babbington says. “Combined with advances in methods to measure and manage designs towards these goals, the industry is seeing a significant increase in reclads and facade retrofits.”
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