Contemporary brick façades: standard enclosures

Abstract

In recent years, engineers and architects in our country have been prompted to rethink the design and construction of brick masonry enclosures on portal frame structures due to the pathologies that frequently appear these walls, and in response to the need for a new technology that would minimize the existing problems.
Together with damp, cracking is the most common pathological process affecting today’s brick masonry enclosures and may be caused by a number of factors (Figure A). But according to ASEMAS, the Spanish architects’ mutual association, in all cases cracking is ultimately the result of low tensile strength.
The brick masonry walls built today rest on and cantilever out from slab edges, resisting wind action as a result of vertical arching between consecutive slabs, which leads to an inevitable accumulation of loads on the enclosure.
Cracking can be controlled, firstly, by reinforcing the wall to enhance ductility, but this calls for horizontal movement joints on the under side of the slabs to avoid the accumulation of loads on the enclosures, a solution that nonetheless weakens the wind strength of the panels.
AllWall has been devised to eliminate the need for anchorage pilasters behind walls, which block the air chamber and create insulation gaps. This new system consists in a series of inventions related to masonry and reinforcement typology that enable masons to erect threeway reinforced panels using mortar instead of concrete.
These inventions have paved the way for the development of new brick facade typologies - supported, suspended or prefabricated - whose continuous air chambers, free of damp and thermal bridges, guarantee the hygrothermal efficiency of the enclosure.
Currently implemented in any number of buildings in our country, the technology presents advantages that make it apt for any other area, including regions where seismic risk is high.