Knowledge Centre

The thinking behind the envelope

Technical deep-dives, regulatory guidance and practical resources from the engineers who design and deliver building envelopes every day.

Latest

Articles & insight

Insight5 min read

Why responsive facade teams matter in 2026

Programmes are tighter, evidence demands are heavier and main contractors need envelope teams who answer quickly and solve practically.

Read article

Regulation6 min

Gateway 2 is changing how envelope packages are bought

The cheapest quote is harder to defend when the project also needs product evidence, calculations, installation records and a golden-thread audit trail.

ALM Technical Team · 3 Jul 2026

Technical5 min

The interface risk in roofing, cladding and glazing packages

Leaks, cold bridges and late variations often live between packages, not inside them. The envelope needs one coordinated view.

ALM Technical Team · 28 Jun 2026

Technical8 min

Closed-cavity facades, explained

How a sealed cavity with controlled air supply delivers solar control and transparency without external shading.

ALM Technical Team · 18 Nov 2025

Regulation11 min

The Building Safety Act and your envelope

A practical walk-through of the golden thread of information and what it means for facade documentation.

ALM Technical Team · 2 Oct 2025

Sustainability7 min

Cutting embodied carbon in curtain walling

Where the carbon really sits in a unitised system — and the specification choices that move the needle.

ALM Technical Team · 14 Sept 2025

Insight6 min

Making mock-ups earn their cost

Visual, performance and system mock-ups each answer a different question. Here is how to brief them well.

ALM Technical Team · 5 Aug 2025

Downloads

Resources & tools

Templates, checklists and technical papers to help you specify and de-risk your envelope.

Facade performance specification template

A structured starting point for authoring a performance-based envelope specification.

spec · 1.2 MB

Envelope buildability checklist

Fifty checkpoints to de-risk your facade before tender.

checklist · 480 KB

Unitised curtain wall CAD details

Editable typical junction details for early-stage coordination.

cad · 6.8 MB

The route to a net-zero envelope

Our position paper on decarbonising the building envelope across its lifecycle.

whitepaper · 3.4 MB

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