The auditorium opens at 8:30 AM, welcoming attendees to the second day of the PBFD 2026 conference. This marks the beginning of an exciting and engaging day focused on a workshop on Façade Serviceability: Failures and Lessons Learned. As participants gather, they’ll have the opportunity to settle in, connect with fellow professionals, and prepare for the day ahead.

Angela Mejorin will kick off the workshop with opening remarks, setting the stage for the 2026 discussions on Façade Serviceability: Failures and Lessons Learned.

Angela will also introduce Co-Chair and PBFD Advisor Daniel J. Lemieux, who will co-moderate the Workshop on Façade Serviceability: Failures and Lessons Learned alongside her.

The Swiss Federal Technical University (ETH Zurich) builds and maintains hundreds of thousands of square meters of facades. Representing ETH as a client in construction projects, I am responsible for ensuring that the facades we build and refurbish are constructed economically and perform reliably over the long term, with minimal maintenance and straightforward repair. This objective should be shared by - and guide - everyone involved in the design, construction, and use phases.

Based on selected ETH buildings and recent projects, I will present observations from the client’s perspective, including lessons learned from long-term operation, maintenance, and repair, and discuss how these experiences can inform facade design and decision-making.

This presentation examines the root causes of disputes in façade engineering, drawing on insights from over 1,400 global projects. It highlights how façade systems—at the intersection of architecture, engineering, and construction—are particularly exposed to risk due to technical complexity and fragmented responsibilities.

Focusing on European trends, the session explores key drivers such as design errors, incomplete information, late-stage changes, and contractual misalignment. It shows how unresolved façade detailing and premature construction often lead to delays, cost escalation, and claims.

The presentation also addresses broader industry pressures, including supply chain disruption, skills shortages, and sustainability demands. It advocates for early specialist involvement, clearer allocation of responsibilities, and the use of digital tools such as BIM to improve coordination—promoting more collaborative delivery models and reducing dispute risk.

Façade durability is often defined through prescriptive requirements that overlook real in-service behaviour. In multi-family residential buildings, failures typically emerge as serviceability issues—water intrusion, air leakage, sealant degradation, and movement-related cracking—rather than structural deficiencies.

This presentation draws on forensic investigations across a range of residential typologies, using methodologies aligned with ASTM E2128. Recurring issues are identified at critical interfaces, often linked to inadequate movement design, poor detailing integration, and unclear performance criteria.

Findings reveal a gap between design assumptions and operational reality. The session advocates for measurable serviceability criteria and feedback loops from field performance to design, supporting a more robust performance-based approach to façade durability.

High-rise fires have highlighted the critical risk of vertical fire spread at the perimeter joint between floor slabs and curtain wall systems. Failures in perimeter fire containment—often due to complex geometries, improper system selection, or poor installation—can compromise compartmentation and accelerate fire spread.

This presentation connects lessons from real fire events with the development of ASTM E2307, explaining how curtain wall systems behave under fire exposure and why perimeter joints remain challenging details.

It also emphasises the importance of inspection and verification, referencing ASTM E06.21 to ensure correct installation and long-term performance. By linking testing, design, and field practice, the session provides practical strategies to reduce fire risk and improve life safety in multi-storey buildings.

This break provides attendees with an opportunity to relax, network, and reflect on the insights shared during the presentations.

Preconstruction mockups and targeted testing are critical tools for validating façade performance, detailing, and constructability before installation. Unlike other building systems, enclosure performance is often only verifiable once in place, limiting opportunities for correction. This presentation argues for early-stage mockup strategies—beyond typical first-in-place testing—to enable meaningful risk mitigation, particularly for complex or novel systems.

Through case studies including the Children’s Hospital, an outpatient clinic, and an advanced research lab, the session highlights how preconstruction testing revealed issues such as movement, sealant adhesion, and system integration.

It emphasises the need for coordinated planning, stakeholder alignment, and dedicated leadership to ensure mockups function as effective risk management tools throughout design and construction.

Reliable evaluation of long-term façade serviceability remains a key challenge, especially in harsh climates. This presentation outlines a traceability-driven forensic methodology developed through decades of field investigations on multi-storey buildings in South Florida, exposed to high winds, humidity, and aggressive marine conditions.

Using a structured protocol of evaluation factors, the approach captures and classifies degradation patterns across façade systems, distinguishing between localized maintenance issues and systemic performance failures. Findings show that environmental drivers—particularly wind loading and wind-driven rain—are primary causes of long-term deterioration, while maintenance deficiencies often act as secondary accelerators.

By translating field observations into measurable indicators, the methodology supports risk-based maintenance, informed rehabilitation strategies, and a more robust performance-based understanding of façade durability in real conditions.

This presentation explores emerging wind-related challenges in high-rise façades as designs increasingly incorporate operable openings, balconies, and permeable systems. While enhancing ventilation and user experience, these features introduce new risks under serviceability wind conditions, particularly when manually operated without centralised control.

Case studies highlight issues such as wind-driven rain, internal pressure effects, noise, and operational disruptions. Special focus is given to recessed balcony geometries, where aero-acoustic-elastic phenomena can induce unexpected vibrations and pressure effects beyond standard code assumptions.

The session also addresses the performance of façade ancillaries under turbulent wind loading and presents advanced wind tunnel testing and analysis methods. It emphasises the growing need for performance-based approaches to design façades capable of responding to complex, real-world wind interactions.

Double-skin façades consist of two layers, typically glass, separated by a ventilated cavity that enhances thermal, acoustic, and environmental performance. This presentation explores their growing use in high-rise design, highlighting their adaptability across climates through controlled airflow and solar management.

Focusing on advanced analysis methods, the session presents CFD and wind tunnel studies used to evaluate airflow, solar heat transfer, and cavity temperatures. A case study on the Central Bank of Iraq Headquarters demonstrates how mixed-mode ventilation and detailed material modelling inform façade design.

Results show how simulation-driven adjustments to glazing and ventilation strategies can optimise performance. The presentation underscores the importance of integrated analysis in ensuring effective, resilient double-skin façade systems.

This presentation examines the gap between component-level façade testing and whole-building air leakage performance through a higher education facility case study in Texas. Initial testing revealed air leakage exceeding code limits set by IECC 2018 and ASHRAE 90.1.

Using whole-building testing per ASTM E779 alongside thermography and smoke diagnostics, the investigation identified systemic leakage at complex interfaces, including roof transitions and connections between new and existing structures.

Targeted remediation reduced leakage to compliant levels. The presentation highlights how discrete component testing can miss critical pathways, advocating for integrated, performance-based approaches to ensure enclosure continuity and align design intent with real operational performance.

This break provides attendees with an opportunity to relax, network, and reflect on the insights shared during the presentations. This interlude offers a chance to exchange ideas, explore innovative concepts, and build connections.

In this keynote, Massimo Colomban shares the journey behind building Permasteelisa Group into a global leader in curtain wall systems. Rather than focusing on technologies, the talk reflects on the strategic principles that shaped long-term success in a complex, international industry.

Drawing from decades of experience, Colomban explores product innovation as a mindset, organisational evolution across engineering, fabrication, and installation, and the importance of cost control and operational clarity. He highlights the role of talent, partnerships, and a “think global, act local” culture in scaling effectively. Through personal insights and analogies—from music to Formula 1—the keynote offers a rare perspective on leadership, vision, and teamwork in creating a lasting global enterprise.

This moment represents one of the most meaningful milestones of PBFD 2026. The Career Recognition honours a lifetime of impact on the façade industry—celebrating not only technical innovation, but the ability to transform an entire sector. Through the vision behind Permasteelisa Group, Massimo Colomban helped redefine how building envelopes are engineered, manufactured, and delivered at a global scale.

The recognition will be formally presented by Angela Mejorin together with the PBFD Advisory Group, reflecting a collective acknowledgment from leading figures across design, engineering, manufacturing, and standardisation.

More than a ceremonial act, this is a moment of alignment with PBFD’s core mission: advancing technical excellence, performance-based thinking, and industry evolution. It is also an opportunity to connect generations—recognising a legacy that continues to shape how façades are conceived, built, and performed worldwide.

Operable window performance depends not only on system design but also on structural behaviour and coordination across disciplines. This presentation reviews key principles for properly designed and installed window wall systems, highlighting common serviceability issues.

A case study of a 50-storey hotel illustrates how excessive slab deflections—caused by improper shoring—led to racking of window frames and failure of top-hinged operable vents. Structural movements exceeded design tolerances, compromising functionality and triggering ineffective repair attempts.

The session examines how factors such as hardware selection, clearances, and configuration contributed to the problem. It emphasises the importance of aligning performance requirements, delegated design, and construction practices, with particular focus on controlling structural deflections to ensure long-term operability and façade reliability.

This presentation examines how façade performance is often governed by “interface-driven conditions” arising from the interaction of structural systems, façade design, and fabrication constraints. Rather than isolated detailing issues, many serviceability risks originate from late-stage resolution of competing requirements such as geometry, tolerances, load paths, and installation sequences.

Through analytical modelling and case-based observations, the study shows how local adjustments—made to resolve conflicts—can introduce unintended structural eccentricities, misalignments, and performance deficiencies. It highlights how these iterative corrections propagate across systems, affecting overall façade behaviour.

The presentation advocates for earlier evaluation of interface conditions within the design process, shifting from reactive coordination to proactive system integration, ultimately improving constructability, serviceability, and long-term façade performance.

Moisture ingress is a primary driver of façade deterioration, triggering physical, chemical, and biological damage. This presentation examines how different moisture states influence mold growth and long-term material performance. While standards such as ASTM C1338 assess behaviour under sustained humidity, they do not capture transient events like water intrusion.

The study compares short-term liquid exposure with controlled high-humidity conditions across conventional and bio-based materials, using advanced techniques such as single-sided NMR to track moisture distribution. Results show that material performance varies significantly depending on moisture state, with some materials becoming vulnerable only under liquid exposure.

The findings highlight the need to complement standard testing with realistic scenarios, supporting more reliable durability assessment and façade design.

Building envelopes account for 50–60% of heat losses, making façade retrofitting a key strategy for extending building life and reducing carbon emissions. This presentation explores circular approaches to curtain wall (CW) retrofits, addressing the significant waste expected from ageing façades.

Using twin CW modules from a case study building, the analysis compares virgin and remanufactured materials with bio-based insulation across multiple end-of-life scenarios—landfill, recycling, and reuse—following EN 15804:2012 + A2:2019.

Results show clear environmental benefits for reuse and recycling, with substantial emission reductions in production and end-of-life phases. However, reuse alone does not guarantee carbon neutrality, highlighting the need for integrated lifecycle strategies to achieve low-carbon façade retrofitting.

Angela Mejorin will conclude the workshop day of PBFD 2026, themed Façade Serviceability: Failures and Lessons Learned, by summarizing the key insights. She will then introduce the Grand Finale networking event, guiding attendees to the Wave Murano Glass furnace for the Grand Finale event starting at 7:30 PM.

The evening will feature live glassblowing demonstrations. Guests will also have the opportunity to engage directly with the material through curated hands-on experiences, alongside drinks and canapés in a unique industrial-artistic setting.

Located in a historic industrial building on Murano, Wave Murano Glass combines centuries-old craftsmanship with cutting-edge infrastructure, including advanced glass-melting furnaces and an innovative waste heat recovery system designed to reduce energy consumption and environmental impact.

Wave Murano Glass has established collaborations with leading international designers, artists, and brands—positioning the furnace as a benchmark for bespoke artistic production at the intersection of design, architecture, and material innovation.

Step into Cison di Valmarino and CastelBrando to explore a dialogue between architecture, landscape, and heritage—followed by a curated food and wine networking experience with fellow PBFD attendees.

Program details and Booking page

Step into Cison di Valmarino and CastelBrando to experience a moment of wellness and relaxation immersed in the landscape—followed by a curated food and wine networking experience with fellow PBFD attendees.

Program details and Booking page

Step inside the historic Orsoni Venezia 1888 furnace to explore the art of mosaic production at the intersection of tradition and architectural innovation, followed by a traditional Venetian networking lunch just minutes away—reconnecting with fellow PBFD attendees from parallel off-site activities.

Program details and Booking page

Step inside Palazzina Masieri on the Grand Canal to explore a dialogue between modern architecture and contemporary art—where Scarpa and Wright meet the “Reflections on Brancusi” exhibition—followed by a Venetian food and wine networking experience with fellow PBFD attendees.

Program details and Booking page

Step inside the historic Orsoni Venezia 1888 furnace to explore the art of mosaic production at the intersection of tradition and architectural innovation, followed by a traditional Venetian networking lunch just minutes away—reconnecting with fellow PBFD attendees from parallel off-site activities.

Program details and Booking page

Step inside Palazzina Masieri on the Grand Canal to explore a dialogue between modern architecture and contemporary art—where Scarpa and Wright meet the “Reflections on Brancusi” exhibition—followed by a Venetian food and wine networking experience with fellow PBFD attendees.

Program details and Booking page