External walls and claddings for multi-storey and large span commercial buildings

A Sound insulation
A Fire resistance
A Ventilation
A Durability and freedom from maintenance
A Aesthetics

In addition, the level of buildability is important since this has a direct effect on
time, cost and quality in construction. The design and construction of external
walls takes into account these requirements with features incorporated to satisfy
each.

Strength and stability

The achievement of required levels of structural stability is essential if the
building is to withstand the loads that are imposed upon it during its life. Vertical,
oblique and lateral loadings must be safely transmitted through the structure to
the loadbearing strata; the external walls may or may not take an active role in
this transmission. It is possible to consider external walls in categories, related to
the extent to which they act as loadbearing elements of the building.
To allow for differential movements between the structural frame and the wall
structure there has to be adequate support to carry the weight of the wall structure, and also restraint fixings that will maintain the wall in position and at the
same time allow differential movements without damage to either the fixings or
the wall material.

Exclusion of moisture/weather protection

In the opinion of many building users this may be the main purpose of external
wall construction. The ability to exclude wind, rain, snow and excessive heat or
glare from the Sun is paramount in the list of user requirements, yet this must be
achieved while still allowing best use to be made of natural light and ventilation.
The users must, of course, also be able to enter and leave the building, thus
creating the need for numerous openings to be formed in the building enclosure.
In these areas, particular care must be taken to exclude moisture, although the
nature of the details will naturally vary with differing wall forms. In modern
construction three differing approaches may be taken to achieving the exclusion
of moisture, the choice depending on the nature of the building, its use and its
location.
Traditional walling materials, such as brick, stone and block, exclude rain from
the inside of the buildings by absorbing rainwater that evaporates to the outside
air during dry periods. It is common practice to construct solid walls as a cavity
wall with an outer leaf of brick as a rain screen, a cavity and an inner leaf of lightweight block that acts as a thermal barrier and solid inside wall surface. Non-

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