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Building components

Facade Support & Panels

The brackets, rails, subframes and framing members that hold a facade off a backing structure, and the panels they carry.

8 entries in this category.

Overview

About this category

A facade that is not itself load-bearing has to be held. Between the backing structure and the visible face sits a support layer — brackets, rails, a subframe — whose geometry determines where the insulation goes, where the cavity is, and where heat can bypass the envelope.

These entries describe the support elements and the panels they carry as positions in the build-up. They do not specify bracket types, spacings, fixings or wind-load resistance.

Boundaries

What this category covers, and what it does not

  • Covers the elements that support a non-load-bearing facade, and the panel and framing members that form its face.
  • Does not cover cladding materials or panel products, which are published material entries.
  • Does not cover facade SYSTEMS — rainscreens, curtain walling, render systems and brick-slip cladding are building systems.
  • States no spacing, fixing, cavity dimension, wind load or thermal-bridge value.

Browse

Forms and roles in this category

Descriptive labels for what is here. They are a way of reading the list, not a filter and not a ranking.

Forms:Board or sheetConnector or supportLinear member
Roles:AttachmentDrainageFinishInsulationProtectionSeparationStructureSupportWeather control

Entries

Facade Support components

Every entry in this category. Each explains what the element is, what it depends on, and how it relates to materials, systems and junctions.

Linear memberMullion →A vertical framing member in a glazed facade that carries wind load from the glazing back to the building structure.Board or sheetRainscreen Panel →A panel forming the visible outer face of a drained facade, which sheds most water but is not the weather line.Board or sheetSpandrel Panel →The opaque panel within a glazed facade that conceals the floor zone, and which must insulate and separate where the glazing cannot.Connector or supportSubframe →The assembled framework between a backing structure and a facade that carries the cladding and sets out its geometry.Connector or supportSupport Bracket →A component fixed to a backing structure that projects out to carry a facade's supporting rails or panels.Linear memberSupport Rail →A member running along a facade between brackets that the cladding panels are fixed to.Connector or supportThermal Break Pad →An insulating piece placed within a fixing or connection so that heat does not pass freely through the metal crossing the insulation.Linear memberTransom →A horizontal framing member spanning between mullions that carries the glazing above it and collects water within the facade.

Related reference libraries

Components are what materials become and what systems are made of. The three libraries answer different questions and are kept deliberately separate.

Materials Library →Building Systems →