Building components · Facade Support
Rainscreen Panel
Explains the counter-intuitive point that the visible outer skin is not what keeps the building dry.
Educational reference entry. What this element has to do, and whether any particular arrangement of it is adequate, depends on the whole assembly, the loading, the exposure, local requirements, the manufacturer's instructions and qualified professional design.
Overview
What a rainscreen panel is
A rainscreen panel is the outer face of a drained facade: fixed to rails, with a ventilated cavity behind it. It takes the direct impact of rain and sheds the great majority of it.
What it explicitly does not do is form a sealed barrier. Water is expected to pass its joints, and the arrangement behind — cavity, drainage, and the water control layer on the backing wall — is what actually keeps the building dry. That is the whole principle of a rainscreen.
Boundaries
How it differs from nearby elements
The distinctions that keep this entry from being a restatement of its neighbours.
- It is not a cladding material. Fibre cement, metal composite, terracotta, laminate and timber cladding products are published material entries; the rainscreen panel is the position and the principle they operate under.
- It is not an outer leaf. A masonry outer leaf is self-supporting and bedded; a rainscreen panel is supported by rails and hangs on them.
- It is not a spandrel panel, which is the opaque infill within a curtain wall grid.
Terminology
Common names and aliases
These names describe the same element. The library keeps one entry per component so that a trade term or a regional name never becomes a second, thinner page.
- rainscreen panels
- cladding cassette
- facade cassette
Dependencies
What it depends on
What has to be right elsewhere for this element to do its job.
- The cavity behind it being drained and ventilated, since the whole principle assumes water gets past the panel.
- The water control layer on the backing wall, which is the actual weather line.
- How joints between panels are formed, since open joints and closed joints behave differently.
- Its fixings, which have to hold it against wind suction as well as its own weight.
Considerations
Topics that genuinely apply here
Subjects worth discussing about this element. These are discussion topics, never measured values, ratings or performance claims.
The panel sheds; the cavity and the layer behind manage what gets through. Sealing the joints of a rainscreen is a misunderstanding of how it works.
What an external wall panel is made of, and what is in the cavity behind it, are regulated matters in many buildings and are not free choices.
Panels expand and contract, and the fixing arrangement has to let them without buckling or loading the fixings.
The panel is the visible face and its appearance over time is what the building is judged by, separately from whether it is performing.
Materials
Commonly formed from
Material families this element is commonly realised in. This states common practice only — it is not a statement that any of these materials suits this component in a particular building, which depends on the whole assembly and on qualified review.
Assemblies
Building systems this element is met in
The role this component fills inside each assembly. A role describes what the element does there — it is not a statement that this component suits that system in any particular building.
Where it is met
Application contexts
Building contexts where this element is commonly encountered. Association is not recommendation: appearing here does not mean the component suits every instance of that context, or any particular one.
- Facade
Clarifications
Commonly misunderstood
- That the visible cladding keeps the building dry. In a rainscreen it does not; the backing wall's control layer does.
- That sealing rainscreen joints improves performance. It works against the drained and ventilated principle the system depends on.
Conversations
Questions for qualified professionals
Questions worth asking someone with the project in front of them. This page cannot answer them.
- Where is the actual water control layer in this facade?
- How is the cavity behind the panels drained and ventilated?
- What fire requirements apply to the panel material and to the cavity behind it?
- How do the fixings allow the panels to move?
Go deeper
Related Build Design Hub guides
Planning guidance behind the decisions this element involves.
Preparation
Related planning checklists
Owner-side preparation before the conversation where this element comes up.
What this entry does not do
- No panel material, thickness, joint arrangement, fixing or fire classification is stated here.
- External wall construction in many buildings is subject to specific fire regulation; material selection is a regulatory and design matter.
Facade Support & Panels
The brackets, rails, subframes and framing members that hold a facade off a backing structure, and the panels they carry.
Browse all facade support entries →