Institute for Architectural Science and Technology (IAST)

Course Description

Every façade material moves. Clay expands, concrete shrinks, steel responds to temperature, and the structure deflects under load. This course provides architects and building design professionals with practical knowledge of movement accommodation and tolerance management – the discipline that keeps all of these behaviours from turning into cracking, leaking, or worse. You’ll learn to calculate expected movements for common façade materials, determine joint widths and sealant specifications, and understand the critical interfaces where movement must be accommodated: floor-to-floor joints, corner details, material transitions, and connections to the primary structure. The course covers both the design principles and the reporting format expected by main contractors and checking engineers. Presented by Eugene Korch (façade engineer and IAST Programme Director), the course uses real project tolerance reports and movement joint calculations to demonstrate how small coordination errors lead to cracking, sealant failure, water ingress, and panel distortion. Through worked examples, joint design calculations, and tolerance schedules, this course equips you to produce robust movement and tolerance reports – and to understand the consequences when movement is underestimated or ignored.