Dubai tower being clad floor by floor with storey-high unitised glass facade units

TOWERS AND HIGH-RISE
GLAZED IN THE FACTORY

Unitised facades

A unitised facade arrives as finished storey-high units — frame, glass, gaskets and insulation already assembled and sealed on a bench. Each one is hoisted to its floor, hooked onto brackets that were positioned long beforehand, and its split mullions interlock with the units either side, so the building closes as it rises. Nobody glazes from a cradle, no external scaffold goes up, and the weather line follows the crane. What the method demands in return is precision: every unit is made to the slab edges you measured, so the survey and the bracket setting-out are effectively the whole job.

storey-high unit format
split mullions how units meet
hooked on how units land

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We produce

Curtain walls, structural and semi-structural glazing, ventilated and cassette facades. The system carries its own weight and the wind load of a tall building, and the glass line stays unbroken across the elevation.

Priced per project

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3D model of a house with glazed facade elements

Glazed facade Curtain wall Glass floors Stair railings Glass fences Glass canopies Skylights Glass partitions Fire-resistant glazing

What a unitised system depends on

Storey-high

Unit

Sealed and glazed before it ships
Split

Mullion

Two halves interlock at each joint
Stack joint

Movement

Units slide against one another
Preset

Brackets

Levelled before a unit is made
Sequenced

Hoisting

Units land in the order made

Modern villa with panoramic aluminium glazing and a pool at sunset

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How a tower elevation is closed

Every slab edge measured as it stands Survey booked within 48 hours of the call
Bracket line set, shimmed and signed off Before a single unit is built
Units assembled and sealed indoors Our Dubai plant, packed by floor
Deliveries timed to the crane, not to a store Units arrive in sequence
Hooked on, plumbed, stack joints engaged The skin closes as floors rise
Completed bays hosed and checked Before the fit-out follows behind

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The honest downside

Where a unitised facade does not pay

A unitised facade is made before the building is ready for it. Every unit is built to slab edges measured as poured, so a late design change, a slab out of position beyond the bracket's range or a missed survey is fixed in the factory, not on the floor.

It also needs a crane, a grid that repeats and a programme that releases floors in order. On a low building, an irregular elevation or a refurbishment where the structure is uneven, those conditions are rarely met, and the factory repetition that makes the method pay is not there.

For low-rise, re-cladding and elevations that change angle from bay to bay, a stick-built curtain wall assembled in place absorbs the irregularities far better. Unitised is the right choice for tall, repetitive towers where access from outside would be the biggest line in the job.

Consider instead Curtain wall

Frequently asked questions

Height turns access into the biggest line in the job. Hanging units means the crew works from inside the floor plate and the crane does the reaching, so there is no scaffold up twenty-odd storeys and no glazing done from a swinging platform. On a low building none of that pays for itself, and the repetition that makes factory assembly cheap simply is not there. The choice follows the building, not fashion.

They do not meet, exactly — they overlap. Each mullion is only half a mullion, and the two halves slot together with gaskets between them to form the joint. It is designed to slide rather than to be sealed rigid, because a tall building sways, the metal grows through the day and every floor settles a little; a joint gunned solid would soon tear itself apart in the heat.

The bracket takes up a certain amount in every direction, and that is what it is for. Beyond that range there are two honest routes: the structure gets corrected, or the affected units are re-detailed before they are made. It is exactly why nothing goes into production until the as-built survey is back and agreed — a unit that does not fit cannot be trimmed on the twentieth floor.

Manufacture runs 3–5 weeks from the approved shop drawing, and after that the pace is set by the crane and by how fast the structure gives you floors. Installation is continuous rather than one big event: units go on floor by floor as the concrete is released, and each completed level is weathertight immediately, which is usually what the internal programme is waiting for.