Driving Existing Fa?ades Towards Change

When it comes to commercial glazing projects, there will always be more existing buildings than new builds in construction. As a result, the potential for existing building construction is always greater than that of new builds. With an ever-increasing demand for energy efficiency, a number of cities are beginning to incorporate stringent requirements and energy codes into their framework.

Is The Fa?ade Industry Experiencing A Monumental Shift?

Commercial buildings that are deficient in high-performance glazing are often considered to be energy wasters. There are currently over 50,000 buildings that require retrofit solutions or renovation in New York alone. This equates to hundreds of windows per building, which could generate considerable opportunities for the glazing industry.

Ensuring that commercial and residential buildings are economically viable is now a primary concern for owners, especially when evaluating early post-war buildings that fail to meet their energy code and possess tired fa?ades.

Options include knocking down the building and embarking on a rebuild; stripping the existing fa?ade and replacing it with a new, improved one, or alternatively upgrading the fa?ade without separating it from its foundations. Aesthetics and the health/well-being of occupants are essential contributing factors in the decision to renovate.

Fortunately, the global pandemic has encouraged health and wellbeing to hold a superlative focus over considerations, not only where a building’s occupants are concerned, but also for employee retention, recruitment, increased production and engagement. Owners are often pressured to upgrade by the business that occupies their building for the sake of their employee welfare. If the workspace is dissatisfactory, they won’t have the great employees.

Acoustical mitigation is another critical driver and is actually already mandated in New York. Single-glazed, older buildings can be blaring, and many parts of the city have consequently made acoustic attenuation requirements mandatory.

Major cities across the US are also tightening their energy codes. The US building stock as a whole accounts for 40% of all energy produced in the US. As a result, there is an emphasis on energy performance and renovation within cities that are adopting strict energy codes and regulations as well as those with an old portfolio of buildings.

The concept of ageing building stock in conjunction with increasingly stringent codes and the decline in new construction over the past year indicate that there could be a sizeable increase in work for the glazing industry.

More buildings are demanding custom/uniquely designed solutions and not every company is prepared for this change. Businesses interested in this field must be mindful that design and building trends are constantly evolving, in order to ensure that they can prove their solution.

The same can be said for projects regarding new and original construction: energy and aesthetics are now a primary focus.