Zak World of Façades London 2017 - Post Event Report

OVERVIEW London has had a long and prosperous history of leading the construction market and is undisputedly the gateway to the entire European region for business. Zak launched their flagship Zak World of Fac;ades conference in the region with the sole motive of giving the design & construction market a focused platform. The eloquent future construction plans in the city played a tremendous role in delivering the maiden London edition and 34th global edition of the conference extremely successfully.

The conference held on October 4, 2017 at the prestigious London Hilton on Park Lane and was attended by 591 industry leaders and influencers. The august gathering comprised of celebrated architects, fac;ade consultants, developers, fac;ade contractors, main contractors, cost consultants, glass processors, quantity surveyors etc.

The conference opened with a keynote presentation by Russell Cole on technological disruption in the fac;ade material and designs. This was complemented in the following presentation by John Bushell where he spoke on innovation for increased performance levels of fac;ades. Ed Daines of WilkinsonEyre spoke as to how innovations can help architecture become more identical through fac;ades. The sessions ended with the joint presentation from Pascel Pinet and Carlos Piles of Ductal speaking on ultra-high-performance concrete.

Second session was rolled open by Kenneth Zammit from BuroHappold Engineering speaking on making complex building forms and fac;ade designs cost effective and sustainable. Following him, Dr. Winfried Heusler from Schuco shared his views on performance requirements of the fac;ades. Zaha Hadid's Patrik Schumacher delivered the special keynote emphasizing as to how design in communication can be instrumental in aesthetics revolutions.

The session ended with panel discussion on innovations in fac;ade construction affecting the fac;ade designs and aesthetics in European projects and had experts from Lendlease, Rogers Stirk Harbour+ Partners, Billings Design Associates, Laing O'Rourke, PLP Architecture, FMDC, and SimpsonHaugh & Partners sharing their views.

Following the luncheon networking, two parallel sessions were held with major themes on innovation and fac;ade materials respectively. Track A opened with presentation on digital revolutions aiding fac;ade construction delivered by Priedemann's Lars Anders. Dr Mathias Behrens of Technoform shared his views on cradle-to-cradle solutions for construction industry and how it can augment sustainability. His presentation was followed by Benoit Domercq of AGC Glass speaking on smart tinting fac;ades and natural light management through innovations in glass. Kuraray's Sandeep Kashyap's presentation emphasized upon acoustics and structural properties of glass and its enhanced performance.

Mike Carrick from Siderise spoke on sound transmission paths and factors affecting acoustics performances of the fac;ades. Track A of the session concluded with a panel discussion on the ever important topic of innovations in glass. The panel had leaders from Mace, Arup, Glass & Fac;ade Technology Research Group, University of Cambridge, Skanska and Kuraray.

Track B of the session opened with a presentation on evolution of fac;ade materials from concrete to glass while discussing about ventilations as a crucial subject which was delivered by Frank Filskow of Make Architects. Ramboll's Mark Pniewski spoke on high performance materials and designs for high performance fac;ades for UK market. Taking the session further, Yannis Angells from Elval colour touched upon the fire safety aspect of the fac;ades and role of manufactures for the same.

Roy Weghorst from Kingspan delivered presentation on the fire safety rules and regulations and compliances routes. Speaking next, Michael Reeves of Renson highlighted design aspects supporting natural ventilation aspects in airtight fac;ades. The session was brought to closure with a panel discussion on making fac;ades smarter for enhanced natural ventilation. Experts from Meinhardt, Allies and Morrison, BRE, AECOM and Renson partook in the discussion and shared their insights.

Following the networking session over tea, the last session of the conference rolled off with the opening presentation by Thornton Tomasetti's Sergio De Gaetano. He shared case studies while speaking of douclosed cavity fac;ades and high performance concrete. Eckersley O'Callaghan's James O'Callaghan presented on the structural use of glss with case studies of the Apple stores globally.

The conference also had a very interesting Pecha-Kucha presentation which was a high octane 400 second presentation on high performance super insulation delivered by Dr. Bettina-Gerharz-Kalte from Evonik Resource Efficiency. The conference came to conclusion with the final discussion of the day on Understanding Fac;ade Process Management - FPM which has panelists from Eric Parry Architects, Multiplex, Alinea Cost Consulting, Berkeley Homes, Schuco UK, Eckersley O'Callaghan, Lindner Group and Schuco International.

Quality discussion with emphasis on smart and sustainable facades, sought after insights pertaining futuristic innovations in designs and materials and the right mix of decision makers and influencers partaking in the event helped make the event an extremely successful edition in the UK. The networking sessions were the highlights of the day doubling as a wonderful opportunity to meet with new and future business associates. We look forward to hosting London's fac;ade and construction industry again in 2018.