Analysis of the main types of facade systems and the elements forming a facade
One Lens, Every Wall — A Complete Framework for Reading Any Façade System by Its Physics
Course Description
This course starts on a street where three buildings share the exact same brick face — same colour, same bond, same look. You'd think they were the same wall. They're not. Behind that identical brick sit three completely different façade systems, each handling heat and water in its own way — and you cannot judge a façade by what it shows the street.
This course teaches you to see past the surface, to the system underneath, using a single lens: building physics, not structure or fixings. Every system, however different it looks, gets asked the same five questions — its layer build-up, its cavity, its thermal bridges, how well it holds heat, and where it risks water.
You will learn to classify a cavity as freely ventilated, slightly ventilated, or unventilated by the size of its openings, and to recognise linear, point, and repeating thermal bridges wherever they hide — the weak spots that are always both an energy leak and a cold spot at once.
The course walks through every major façade family in turn — solid masonry and masonry cavity walls, lightweight framed systems with render or rainscreen skins, precast concrete sandwich panels, the window wall, and the full curtain wall family: stick, unitised, and structurally glazed — reading each one by exactly the same lens.
It brings every system back together at the end, comparing their characteristic cold spots and moisture paths side by side, and showing you how a system's own physics points straight at the calculation method it will need later in this course: two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or a dedicated glazing method.
Presented by Eugene Korch (façade engineer and IAST Programme Director), this course completes your grounding in façade physics before the course moves on to materials — because a façade type is not a style or a brand name, it is a particular stack of physics jobs, and once you can see the jobs, you can read any wall on earth.
Included in Facade Intelligence Professional Membership (FI PRO)
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
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Explain why a façade's outer appearance tells you nothing about the system behind it, and why building physics — not structure or fixing method — is the right lens for reading any wall
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Apply the same five questions to any façade system: its layer build-up, its cavity, its thermal bridges, how well it holds heat, and where it risks water
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Classify a cavity as freely ventilated, slightly ventilated, or unventilated based on the size of its openings, and explain why weep holes count as drainage, not ventilation
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Distinguish linear, point, and repeating thermal bridges, and explain why each is both an energy leak and a cold spot at once
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Describe the signature of solid masonry and masonry cavity wall systems: their build-up, cavity behaviour, and typical thermal bridges
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Explain why a lightweight framed system's backing wall matters as much as its visible cladding, and why the two must be read as one build-up
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Distinguish render-on-insulation, rainscreen cladding, and their differing cavity behaviour, bridging, and moisture strategy
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Explain how the same backing wall can produce three different cavity classifications depending only on the skin placed in front of it
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Describe the signature of precast concrete sandwich panels and hybrid panelised systems: hidden connectors, panel joints, and how to read an unfamiliar panel by the same lens
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Distinguish a window wall from a curtain wall by how each relates to the floor slab, and explain why that difference defines each system's characteristic thermal bridge
What's Covered
Part 1 — A Façade Is a System, Read Through Physics
Why identical brick faces can hide three completely different façade systems behind them.
Why this course reads every system through building physics, not structure or fixings.
The generic layer stack every façade shares, read from outside to inside.
Classifying a cavity as freely ventilated, slightly ventilated, or unventilated, and why weep holes are drainage, not ventilation.
Linear, point, and repeating thermal bridges, and the two questions every system answers: how well does it hold heat, and where might water form?
Part 2 — Mass Wall and Lightweight Framed Systems
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Solid masonry and masonry cavity wall: one material doing everything, then a wall split into two leaves.
Why a lightweight framed system's backing wall matters as much as its visible cladding.
Render-on-insulation (ETICS): a continuous blanket with no cavity at all.
Rainscreen cladding: a freely breathing cavity, and the brackets that make or break its heat performance.
One backing, three skins: how the same wall produces three different cavity classifications depending only on what sits in front of it.
Part 3 — Precast, Panelised, and Slab-to-Slab Glazed Systems
Precast concrete sandwich panels: connectors hidden in the insulation, and panel joints as the main path for both heat and water.
Reading an unfamiliar hybrid panel by the same lens, whatever it’s made of.
The window wall: why sitting between the floor slabs, rather than passing in front of them, defines its whole thermal signature.
Part 4 — Curtain Wall Systems (Glazed Skins)
The stick system: assembled on site, and why its sealing quality depends on the crew and the weather that day.
The unitised system: factory-made panels for consistency on tall, repetitive towers.
Structural glazing: removing the pressure plate, and being honest about how small that heat gain really is.
Part 5 — Reading Across the Systems, and Where the Course Goes
Collapsing every system into the same handful of physics jobs, filled by different materials.
Comparing each system's characteristic cold spot and moisture path side by side.
Why the system in front of you points straight at the calculation method you'll need: two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or a glazing method.
Façades beyond the map — double-skin, adaptive, and experimental — and why the same lens still applies.
The one idea to carry forward: a façade type is a stack of physics jobs, not a style or a brand name.
Your Instructor
Programme Director, IAST Eugene Korch
Eugene is a façade engineer and educator with extensive experience in building envelope design and technical specification. Through the Institute for Architectural Science and Technology (IAST) and Facade Intelligence, he delivers CPD training to architects and construction professionals across the UK. His teaching approach emphasizes practical application and accessibility, making complex technical subjects understandable for design professionals.
Course Schedule
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Course Overview
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Course Objectives
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How to Navigate the Learning Materials
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Introduction Video
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Lecture
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Post-Lecture Reading List
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Certificate: Download & Share
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About this course
- £120.00
- Practice test questions
- CPD Certificate: 2 hrs
Who Should Enrol
This course is designed for:
Anyone building a structured, practical understanding of façade systems.
Architects and Architectural Technologists specifying façade build-ups.
Junior Façade Engineers developing a systematic way to read any wall.
Envelope Designers and Façade Specialist Contractors.
Building Envelope Consultants.
Project Managers and Design Managers who want to understand what sits behind a façade’s visible finish.
Course Details
Format: Self-paced online course with video lectures
Duration: Approximately 30 minutes
CPD Points: 2 hours structured CPD / 2 Learning Units
Access: 12 months from enrolment
Certificate: CPD certificate issued upon completion
Prerequisites: Recommended — our fundamentals courses on energy and moisture, and on glazing (helpful context, not required)
What Makes This Course Different
One simple lens for every wall: the same five questions apply to solid masonry and the most advanced curtain wall alike.
Built around a real, deceptive image: three identical brick façades hiding three completely different systems.
Covers the full family tree: mass, lightweight framed, precast, slab-to-slab glazed, and curtain wall systems, all read the same way.
Sets up the rest of the course: shows exactly which calculation method — two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or glazing-specific — each system will need later.
Grounded in real detailing conventions: built around ISO 6946 cavity classification and UK NHBC / BR 443 detailing practice.
Join the Facade Intelligence Professional Membership (FI PRO)
Membership fees start from £320 per year
Gain access to all upcoming seminars and a wide range of the most sought-after short courses.
Corporate discounts are available for teams of 10 or more.
For a bespoke quote, please contact our team at [email protected].
