Building Envelope

Building envelope and building science have been integral to architecture for decades, while over the years building codes, demand for more energy efficient and sustainable buildings, has resulted in buildings, materials, climate, and other factors becoming ever increasingly complex.

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Due to this increase in complexity, specialization in the expertise around building science has been diverging from the architect despite the architectural profession maintaining the liability.

METAFOR’s building envelope team provides valuable insight and stewardship expertise to the broader studio and the industry.

As valued team members, our peers in each profession we interact with aim to utilize engagement when it has the best value to the team and the project. The nuance of architects and engineers effectively collaborating on every aspect of what we do is critical to our success as an industry. The gained knowledge is to everyone’s benefit as our team provides expertise and valuable insight that educates, informs, and supports architectural projects internally, while simultaneously integrating into the architectural project delivery process. As a result, our ability to collaborate with other architects in the industry is elevated because we can speak their language and better understand the challenges and differing perspectives on projects we are able to deliver together. Ultimately, we are aiming to have better performing buildings by virtue of the expertise instilled in the process, not just make designs more efficient through engineering, value engineering, reverse engineering, or any other means to conventionally solve a problem.

Our building envelope group each bring a diverse background in education, experience, and work histories unique to the industry.

Our team members come from experience gained at General Contractor firms, sub-contractor building envelope firms, and engineering practice firms. Our understanding of how the materials are procured, costed, installed and maintained/replaced offer a special lens to our projects. This all comes together through design, construction, and post-occupancy where our team sees it all and provides a holistic perspective at each step in the project.

The profession of Building Envelope and Building Science has an extremely wide range in origins from both an engineering or architectural perspective. Our team boosts extensive experience in construction, ownership and management, and tenures at industry-leading engineering and architectural firms. These varied qualifications provide a wholistic perspective on how our building envelope expertise can be applied to any project. It is with this in mind that we consider constructability, cost, maintenance, performance, sustainability, and many other perspectives to achieve the best outcome with all aspects considered.

Better Performing Buildings

Each task and deliverable on every project are tailored to the project and clients needs to ensure our value is maximized for the benefit of the intended outcome(s). These services are also suited to our integrated design methodology where we effectively utilize our expertise appropriately to support our Interior Design and Architectural team members on their projects. For example, with interior fit out projects where a penetration in the envelope is necessary, our Interior Design team utilize our expertise to effectively detail and communicate the design intent with the contractor to maintain continuity of the primary building envelope barriers and ensure the integrity of the building envelope is upheld once the project is complete.

Our building envelope team provides specific service offering to our clients, peers and the industry including existing building assessment, performance testing, design assist, technical and peer review, field review, contract administration, submittal review, owner training and warranty review services.

Our team is widely accessible within the industry through structured instructor roles in post-secondary programs, to presenting at other Architectural offices, conferences, industry events and other opportunities where we can be loyal stewards. We are intentionally curious and leverage our strong relationships with manufacturers, contractors, and industry professionals to elevate our expertise through products and systems currently available, and trending industry innovations making their way into the market. Additionally, we utilize our strategic partnerships with consultants and technology providers to take advantage of their knowledge and tools to continually expand our own breadth of know-how.

Our goal is to focus on building strong relationships with the stakeholders based on trust and the knowledge.

Through all stages of project development and execution, our goal is to focus on building strong relationships with the stakeholders based on trust and the knowledge that the Reference Design and Performance Specifications will meet user group requirements, while respecting budget parameters, and to ensure the Design Build or P3 team deliver a successful project.

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