The Shade Sculpture Group has steadily been growing its expertise in bespoke façade engineering and building envelopes over the last few years. Shade Sculpture management have already been involved in many large scale, international projects involving these disciplines including football stadiums, shopping centres and Universities. The most notable of which is Ada college, the first interactive media façade in the UK! Due to an increase in projects that are incorporating rain screen, ventilated, membrane, metal, interactive and multimedia façades as well as building envelopes, cladding and architectural lighting, the Shade Sculpture Group has launched Shade Sculpture Façades, a dedicated company to centralise all our expertise.
Why are façades so important?
External façades and building envelopes are becoming an increasingly important aspect in a buildings functionality. Their usage, being well-conceived and designed, can provide a unique and elegant architectural feature whilst also making a huge impact on the energy performance and interior function of a building.
Gone are the days when their use was purely to cover up ugly concrete exteriors or screen unsightly external building features such as piping runs, ventilation systems, stairwells and lift shafts. Modern façade design can be used to maximise natural light into a building’s interior reducing the need for high energy fluorescent lighting which can create a harsh working environment. It can also provide solar shading to prevent solar glare and heat ‘hot spots’, ensuring a comfortable living/working environment. Metal, rain screen and ventilated façades can be used to protect a buildings substructure from the harsh impact of wind and rain while also improving the buildings overall thermal properties. This will help to reduce energy costs by minimising the usage of costly heating and air conditioning systems. By using well designed and implemented façades modern buildings can be as green, energy efficient and cost effective as possible, features which are highly prized in today’s budget and environment conscious society.
As modern internal architecture embraces a more open plan and spacious design philosophy featuring higher atriums and large glazed exterior walls, internal façades are becoming more important than ever before. Our expertise can enable architects and interior designers to enhance the usage, flow and feel of a space with aesthetically pleasing feature façades constructed utilising a range of materials including metal, solid surface, glass, ceramic and wood. We can provide a complete in-house design and engineering consultative approach, hand in hand with our philosophy of pushing the boundaries of what is possible. An excellent example is our new Media Panel which can be used to turn an internal solid surface façade into an interactive or multimedia wall. The Media Panel allows architects and interior designers to create solid surfaces that, at the flick of a switch, can change or cycle colours or become full video walls. The Media Panel can also be used externally as part of a larger architectural lighting scheme.
Why Shade Sculpture Façades?
This is a good question and it is what separates us, from our competition. Not only do we inherit a wealth of bespoke engineering experience gained from the Tensile Architecture industry. We also have the engineering knowledge and understanding of form-finding which is integral to the production of unique curved surfaces. Combining this knowledge, engineering expertise and experience of producing uniquely shaped 3D surfaces is what has enabled us to develop and revolutionise the building envelope and façade industry. This capability allows us to produce designs and structures that have been impossible to construct using conventional techniques until now.
We also bring together the best fabrication and installation teams in the UK and, coupled with our in-house design and engineering capability, enables us to offer an unparalleled service to our clients. It is not just about offering unique, contemporary design solutions to our clients, we back that up with a management approach that offers our clients greater control over their projects, less financial risk and an increased bottom line cost efficiency. Unlike any other UK company, Shade Sculpture Façades has the knowledge, expertise and capabilities to deliver the complete range of façade projects including rain screen, ventilated, membrane, metal, solid surface, Corian, Krion, interactive and multimedia building façades as well as building envelope, cladding and architectural lighting.
Pushing the boundaries
Our mantra is not to be content with what has been done before, but to constantly push the boundaries of what is possible with both internal and external façade systems. A case in point, is our new industry innovation for digital media advertising and branding. The Media Panel looks just like a normal solid surface façade panel. However, built in to the panel are numerous LED’s that will transform a standard Corian or Krion façade panel into an interactive multimedia panel. This system can be used internally or externally to create video screens that seem to appear through the solid surface and then seamlessly vanish when not in use. An industry first from Shade Sculpture Façades and a prime example of how we are constantly striving to push the envelope of what is possible. Coupling new features and products such as the Media Panel, with our form-finding expertise, Shade Sculpture Façades is uniquely positioned to meet the needs of any project.
Our soft launch has already delivered several high value projects confirming our decision to create an autonomous dedicated company. With a myriad of metal, ventilated, membrane, solid surface, interactive and multi material capabilities Shade Sculpture Façades is uniquely placed, more than any other company in the UK, to deliver full turnkey internal and external projects.
If you would like to find out more information about Shade Sculpture Façades or talk to us about a project, please visit our website www.airsculpt-facades.com or contact us on info@airsculpt.co.uk or +44 (0) 1249 848 649.
