Meinhardt Facade Technology (MFT) was established in the 1980’s in Melbourne and expanded into Asia in 1995, when the Managing Director, Bruce Wymond, set up a façade engineering office in Hong Kong.

Mr Ron Bertoli takes up the story: “Bruce realised that there was a lack of facade knowledge and expertise in the Asian region, so he set about building a business to service that market. His model was based on putting people on the ground to service projects and providing those people with powerful technical knowledge that was not otherwise available.” 

Today’s business schools talk about Virtual Teams, Orchestrated Networks, and Blue Ocean Strategies. MFT have enjoyed great business expansion over the past 14 years by putting these models into practice. MD, Bruce Wymond, recognised that improved quality, design and building efficiency were paramount to raising the profile of façade engineering and the importance of the role of façade engineers ‘building’ towards a more sustainable future; a critical component of emerging economies with huge expansion plans on the table.

“This strategy has been great for our business because our clients have benefited from getting better quality buildings, suppliers have used our knowledge to improve their products and the environment benefits from improved efficiency. Everyone wins! And that’s a pretty good feeling” Mr Bertoli says. 

After setting up their office in Hong Kong, MFT expanded into Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, Dubai, and Chennai, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Shenzhen and Bangkok. On a global level MFT are currently consulting on around 20 percent of the world’s largest building projects (those with a building value of over US$200,000,000) and have worked on many of the world’s biggest buildings including :The Pearl (Dubai), China World Trade Center (Beijing), Eureka Tower (Melbourne), The Center (Hong Kong), City of Dreams (Macau), Taikoo Hui (Guangzhou), Central Market (Abu Dhabi) and international airports in Singapore, New Delhi, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Cyprus. 

Facade engineering is a relatively new profession that has evolved since the 1960’s due to the development of curtain walls, or lightweight facades that are fixed on the outsides of buildings and attached back to concrete floors. Prior to this, facades were traditionally an integral part of the building structure, usually made from concrete or masonry with small windows, which carried the weight of the building. These traditional building facades were designed and documented by an architect and structural engineer. 

As lightweight facades evolved and ultimately became more complex, they were designed and built by specialist suppliers who developed in-house systems and capabilities. Leaders in this phase of façade engineering through the 1970’s and 1980’s were companies like Gartner in Germany, Tostem in Japan, and Kawneer in USA. They all had substantial in-house design capabilities. Today, however, they only make up a small portion of the overall façade industry and the majority of producers need design and engineering support in nearly all aspects of their design, engineering and production. Building owners and architects recognised that they also needed specialist support from façade engineers to ensure that the facades being installed were designed, manufactured and installed correctly.

The MFT team developed a range of façade engineering services that were customized to address the needs of building developers, architects and contractors. The process begins with the developer and/or architect at the front end of the job, to working through the entire design process with a team of specialist consultants. MFT provides advice on facade, systems, structural constraints, thermal and energy issues related to the façade, and system junctions and interfaces to other trades, as well as cost planning issues. Specifications and design drawings are produced and used as the basis for competitive tendering of façade works. Other services MFT provides include technical evaluations of tenders, checking contractor drawings and calculations, witnessing mock-up testing and carrying out QA/QC inspections through factory assembly and site installation. MFT see each step as commercially vital because facades comprise 20 to 25 percent of the total cost of a building. In that regard, the façade is exposed to extreme weather and is, therefore, required to provide comfort to occupants, so any problems can have a huge impact on the building value and income stream.

“With the enormous expansion of emerging economies, the importance of facade engineering is still not fully understood or recognised in many countries,” Mr Bertoli points out. 

With a big hole in any formal education or training in fields such as glass, aluminium and stone design and engineering, there is still a great need to provide technical skill and knowledge to the powerhouses of development. “MFT provides that point of difference. There aren’t many who do” suggests Mr Bertoli. With just one specialist Façade Engineering School at the Centre for Window and Cladding Technology at Bath University, UK, it’s clear the industry could do with a few more institutions that focus specifically on façades.

Mr Bertoli suggests that with the enormous environmental benefits of using glass, aluminium, stone, and other cladding materials it’s surprising that the vast majority of schools of architecture and engineering still tend to focus on concrete and steel structures and don’t give façade materials much attention. 

“This leaves façade engineers to develop knowledge on the job rather than at University, which, for many, is not an ideal situation,” he says.

MFT have recognised this problem and developed extensive in-house training programmes and resources to train their staff through shared information and mentoring. One important programme is called Leveraged Training. This is where staff involved in a new innovation, write a technical note on the innovation. It’s then vetted by a specialist to confirm the accuracy of the technical content and then shared across the team. By using real case studies, often on some of the most advanced facades in the world, the teams in every office in every country have access to the most advanced information available in the world. This is particularly important in emerging economies where best practice and environmental integrity impact on the entire world, not just the country in which the building is being erected. 

 The facade industry continues to evolve and in recent years the focus has shifted from mere appearances, to issues like the environment, acoustics, lighting and fire protection. “We work as proponents of this change.” says Mr Bertoli. Our challenge is to always look at ways to do things better. From using new and innovative materials, to optimizing structural systems, to using less material, to integrating renewable energy systems, to improving human comfort and natural lighting and achieving more sustainable building solutions.”

 Because of the lack of institutions dedicated to supporting Facade Engineers – Structural Engineers and Building Services Engineers have been recognised over the past century through membership of institutions, but Facade Engineers have only recently been recognised through the establishment of the Society of Façade Engineers in UK – most still have to explain their role to developers and architects. Their role is to optimize the design so that materials are correctly specified and designed for the correct loadings and to ensure materials are sufficiently durable to last for 50 years or more. They also need to make sure that the façades are manufactured, tested and installed without defects.  

“Our mantra is that little problems can become huge problems with enormous repetition of details. Things like switching materials, failing to install something correctly, or a small engineering error, or missed step during manufacturing, can affect thousands of panels on a large building and ruin an entire façade. Our role is to do all we can to minimize risk for our clients,” Mr Bertoli says.

 He also points out that it’s commonplace these days to over design in construction because engineers lack experience and confidence in using new materials. Mr Bertoli cites an example on a recent project in Dubai where, after reviewing a design and engineering submission, they found the design was extremely inefficient. They proposed an alternative design that saved over 110 tonnes of aluminium, which equates to saving around 550 tonnes of CO2 going into the atmosphere. A major win for the environment. While this may not occur on every job, the contractor on this Dubai project now has the ability to make more efficient, lower cost facades, with a smaller carbon footprint on the environment, This can now be done on all their future projects by applying the more advanced engineering methods from this one project.  

The environmental importance of advanced facade engineering can not be overstated. In a country like China the environmental impact of the built environment will affect us all. While the global financial crisis has slowed construction progress a little in major cities, it seems second and third tier cities are picking up the pace and are committed to modernisation to meet the needs of their burgeoning economies and growing middle class. Residential developments, hotels and business headquarters are all keeping the construction industry buoyant, so the need for advanced building technology in these zones is imperative. MFT offices reach into these second and third tier markets by recognising the trend before it takes off.

 Clearly the industry leaders recognise the strengths of this closely aligned façade team. With massive growth in India set to outstrip China, MFT set up an office in Chennai last year and is now working on projects across the entire country. India has been hit by the slowdown in the USA impacting on the IT sector, and by a fall in non-resident Indian investment. Despite this, India has an enormous internal economy and momentum that keeps the economy moving. Having a presence allows MFT to adapt their services to suit the market. 

 In a global building industry that’s constantly changing, Mr. Bertoli reflects on the future direction of Meinhardt Facade Technology. “We are geographically progressive, but we need to constantly adapt to provide services that are of value, particularly as value gaps close between us and developing countries. This includes maintaining a technological edge, being innovative both in making things more efficient, but also in the ways we do business, and being constantly on the look out for opportunities to improve the efficiency of buildings and lower energy consumption. This is both challenging and very rewarding work, as winning solutions help us, the building industry and the environment.”