Institute for Architectural Science and Technology (IAST)

Course Description

A cladding façade may have thousands of individual fixing points, each anchored into a substrate that varies in quality across the building. This course provides architects and building design professionals with practical knowledge of structural support and fixing design for rainscreen and overcladding systems – where the challenge is repetition, substrate variability, and installation quality at scale. The course covers L-brackets, T-brackets, adjustable systems, and continuous rail supports. You’ll learn how each bracket carries a share of both dead load and wind load, how thermal break pads and stand-off distances affect structural capacity, and why substrate quality matters so much. The course addresses anchor design in concrete, masonry, steel, and timber-frame substrates – including pull-out and shear capacity, the difference between cracked and uncracked concrete zones, and the essential role of site-specific pull-out testing to verify design assumptions. Presented by Eugene Korch (façade engineer and IAST Programme Director), the course uses real bracket calculation extracts and technical approval certificates to demonstrate how fixing design is verified – and how common site errors such as under-torquing, wrong drill diameter, or insufficient embedment can compromise the system one bracket at a time. Through manufacturer data sheets, technical approval documentation, and worked examples, this course equips you to assess bracket and fixing proposals, understand the test data behind them, and recognise that cladding bracket design is as much about installation quality as it is about engineering calculation.