Publication in STROITELI journal, issue 1, 2017

STOA Ltd. has been active in the construction sector for 16 years and specializes in building facades. The team at the company has always striven to optimize their work in order to respond to the challenges the construction sector, and especially façade construction companies, are facing:

• Improvement of the energy efficiency of buildings;
• Great variety of materials for façade cladding;
• Stricter requirements for a thicker layer of thermal insulation;
• Complex design solutions related to the exterior appearance of the building;
• Shorter time for execution and many others.

At present the construction of the building enclosure is fragmented: one specialty contractor carries out the fixing of the load-bearing substructure, another installs the thermal insulation and yet another mounts the cladding panels. So many separate operations make execution more expensive, take longer and require more resources.

These are just some of the issues the team has to address in their everyday work and in trying to find solutions to these problems they came up with the idea of developing a single modular system for the construction of façades. The system provides a complex solution for mechanical fixing of ventilated facades and has enormous advantages.

Its main components are the fixing system for the horizontal and vertical profiles, which form the load-bearing substructure and support the full set of interface components.  The load-bearing function is transferred to the TEKTA construction, which is attached to the main structure of the building only to the floor plates, thus minimizing thermal bridges and increasing the energy efficiency of the exterior wall. Specially developed fixing of the thermal installation removes the limitations for the thickness of the insulation layer and facilitates the use of technologically new insulation materials.

The Omega-channels of the strut profiles allow for their quick coupling and interlocking with the other elements on the basis of Lego-like principle of connection. The struts are lighter than the traditionally used rails because they are made of recyclable aluminium.

The interface components are specially modelled for the purpose of the present system. Each element has a part or a contour corresponding to a part of the element to which it is attached. The patented assembly principle is that of dual clamping and hooking.