Sustainable construction begins with an efficient building envelope. As the single largest building element, the building envelope or building shell separates the interior of the building from the external environment and includes the roof, walls, windows, glazing, floors and all the joints in between.
A high-performance envelope must meet the project’s requirements for acoustic, thermal, structural, visual, air-quality, fire-resistant, watertight, temperature-control and aesthetic needs. Along with this great responsibility, the building envelope presents great opportunities to enhance sustainability and reduce long-term costs of buildings throughout their life.
Homes can lose as much as
40%
of their heating and cooling energy through cracks and gaps in the building envelope.*
*Source: Energy Star, “Tight Construction”
The energy lost through a building's walls, roofs and windows is the largest single waste of
energy
in most buildings, especially those in hot climates. As a result, the energy efficiency of a building often depends on the materials that help create its envelope.**
**Source: USGBC, “Building Green with Energy Efficient Materials”
The annual required cooling energy for an entire building can be reduced by over
30%
when passive thermal building envelope design and material selection strategies such as insulation, joint sealing, color and glazing systems are implemented together.***
***Source: Cheung, et al. “Energy-efficient Envelope Design for High-rise Apartments”
Sika solutions for facade projects
Creating Bold and Durable Designs for Glass Facades
The knowledge about glass properties creates a growing demand for bolder and creative facade design with more natural lighting.
Sika offers a full range of solutions for insulated glass manufacturing, structural glazing and weather sealing, thereby ensuring system compatibility. With its profound competence in opaque and glass facades alike, Sika is the ideal partner for planners and applicators of all kinds on building envelopes.
Bonding Excellence
Sika not only delivers reliable and certified products, we also ensure our products are being applied the correct way. Our BONDING EXCELLENCE program helps defining a workflow with responsibilities and tasks for facade projects. Ensure your project is executed in a most professional way with BONDING EXCELLENCE.
30 YEARS
experience in glass facades
9000
facade projects realized with Sikasil® Engineering Silicones
