Face-To-Face

We See Great Potential For Faade Consulting In The Indian Market

With a highly skilled team of specialists in facade design and engineering, materials specification and testing, facade construction and maintenance, remedial facade consulting and BMU consulting, Meinhardt faade aims to be world's leading facade consultant. The company provides services on all size projects, both old and new with a strong focus on the client's needs and maximum value addition to each project. Meinhardt has always strived to achieve quality in everything it does and to be professional and ethical in all its actions. It has been working continuously towards helping its clients enhance building technology and improve the environment. Mr. M athieu M eur, M anaging Direc t or, Mr. Mathieu Meur Managing Direc or, eur, ect ect einhardt Fa aade Mr. Mahesh Arumugam, Direc or, Meinhardt Faade and Mr. Mahesh Arumugam, Direc tor, einhardt Fac acade, Meinhardt Facade, India in an interaction with CE&CR give an insight into the evolution of Faade Technology and Meinhardt's plans about India.

Mr. Mathieu Meur, Managing Director, Meinhardt Faade

Mr. Mahesh Arumugam, Director, Meinhardt Facade, India

CE&CR: Can please introduc oduce company to readers? CE&CR: Can you please introduce your company to our readers? M.M.: Meinhardt's faade capability, formerly MFT (Meinhardt
Faade Technology), is the faade engineering business of the Meinhardt Group. Meinhardt Group is an engineering, infrastructure and project management consulting firm with a full suite of capabilities to offer its clients. As one of the few multidisciplinary consultancies in the world to offer faade engineering, Meinhardt provides its clients with a highly-skilled faade engineering team with an unmatched wealth of knowledge and expertise from which all Meinhardt current and prospective clients can benefit. During the past 20 years, we have established a formidable track record having designed faades for more than 1,300 projects, including involvement in some of the world's most iconic buildings.

cover the entire project duration or specific phases of work to suit the client's requirements, such as: Concept design Detailed design Tendering System design and engineering Design and engineering certification Materials and systems testing Fabrication and assembly Site installation Renovation works Forensic investigation of faade defects

CE&CR: Could please lead through evolutions fa aade CE&CR : Could you please lead us through evolutions in faade echnology during past decade? technolog y during the past decade? M.M.: The last 10 years have seen a tremendous rise in the
extent of glazing used in building faades. This trend has slowly been gaining momentum in the Indian market, and is now accelerating. This increased use of glass, along with heightened collective consciousness about environmental issues, has prompted the need for vast improvements in the solar performance of

CE&CR: What are the ser vices provided by 'Meinhardt Faade', CE&CR: are servic provided vices 'Meinhar Fa einhardt aade', einhardt's fa aade engineering capabilit apability? Meinhardt's faade engineering capability? M.M.: We provide a complete range of consulting services on all
types of faades, including curtain walls, frameless glass walls, GRC and GRP cladding, metal cladding, precast concrete faades, stone cladding, skylights, metal roofs and more. Services can

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T3 Terminal AT IGi Airport - Facade Design By Meinhardt

glass. This is the topic of intensive research and development efforts at the moment. Already, a number of solutions can be adopted to improve the efficiency of building faades, such as highly spectrally selective glazing. It tremendously reduces the amount of radiated heat entering a building, thus reducing cooling loads required, while allowing significant amounts of visible light to penetrate the spaces, thereby reducing the need for artificial lighting. Similarly, recently developed heat-reflective coatings for metal panels have started to appear on the local market. These new products also help reduce the amount of heat transferred to the building through solid walls. In addition to improved glazing and coatings, a whole palette of materials and systems have been developed over the past few years, and are now starting to make their appearance on the Indian market. Unitised curtain wall systems for instance, a form of prefabricated faade system that was seldom seen in India in the past, have been making steady in-roads. This in turn has led to improved productivity and quality of the final product, and reduced the need for costly and lengthy repairs at a later stage. Frameless glass walls have also evolved tremendously, going from steel supports, to glass fins, to lightweight trusses, to tensioned cable walls, up to the point where the cables themselves are now concealed and only glass remains visible. This could well be the ultimate in terms of hidden structures. As architects keep pushing the boundaries of their imagination, faade designers like us have to keep thinking outside the box on ways to satisfy their hunger for aesthetically pleasing solutions. is evolving by leaps and bounds. On the one hand, certain projects are still clinging on to very traditional designs, with large areas of solid walls and simple windows. On the other hand, some developers and architects are pushing through with state-ofthe-art faade materials and systems. Our teams in India and around the world have experience in virtually all types of faade systems and materials. Some of the new cladding elements that we are starting to see emerging in India include high-performance glass, engineered wooden panels, ETFE (fabric), exotic metal cladding, BIPV, BILED, and cable net systems.

CE&CR: attribut ibutes yours make for reliable projec oject CE&CR : What attributes of yours make it for a reliable project onsultant? consultant? M.A.: M.A .: Certain consulting firms focus on engineering, others
specialize in design, while yet others are only concerned in the fabrication and installation aspects. By contrast, Meinhardt Faade offer a broad base of services backed by extensive experience and an acute sense of time and cost implications, all of which provide maximum value to our projects and clients. These attributes are what allow a reliable project consultant to deliver beyond client expectations aspects of faade design and construction. Aesthetics - we focus on helping the architect and developer to realize their vision Overall performance - weather-tightness, solar performance, and acoustic performance are all essential to a successful faade Engineering - faade components need to account for the effects of wind loading, seismic events, impact forces, building movements, construction tolerances, and much more

CE&CR: exper xpertise technolog echnology CE&CR: What specific kind of expertise and technolog y do you intend to bring to mark intend to bring to Indian markets? M.A.: M.A .: The Indian market presents interesting challenges, in that it

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Quality control - we strive on getting details right to ensure quality and timeliness Durability - faades need to perform for 30 or more years, so materials and systems selection are vital parts of the process

CE&CR: Please throw importance fa aade CE&CR : Please throw light on the importance of faade design orld high-rise engineering today's wor and engineering in today's world of high-rise buildings? M.M.: Firstly, the faade constitutes the outward image of the
building. This is what marks a building in people's minds. Thus it is important for the faade to display a good appearance from day one, and for decades to come. This is the result of the involvement of faade experts from beginning to completion of the project. Secondly, the exterior envelope is what separates the interior of a building from the surrounding environment. The faade acts as the primary defence against wind, rain, noise, etc. In the past, developers and architects didn't have the option to use the services of a professional faade consultant, and this has resulted in a vast number of buildings experiencing water leakage, mould due to moist air ingress, stone or glass breakage, panels falling off and other technical issues. A number of faade engineering practices, including

CE&CR: prospec ospects CE&CR: What is your outlook on prospects in India? M.A.: M.A .: Our focus is on private developments, as well as large
infrastructure projects (airports, hospitals, etc.). We see strong growth potential in both sectors. We have been responding to an ever-increasing number of requests for proposals over the past few years, and this trend shows no signs of abating. As developers vie for attention and projects that outshine the competition, the aesthetics of buildings will certainly improve in terms of outward appearance and complexity.

CE&CR: intend to combine CE&CR: How do you intend to combine your inter ernational experiences xperienc aspects international experiences with the aspec ts to specific to India? M.M.: Being a global company with a long
history provides us with opportunities to be exposed to and use the latest techniques and materials from all around the world. We are always researching new ways to make faades more attractive, with improved performance. This is the sort of attitude that we want to bring to India. Contrary to what other

last year have ars The last 10 years have tremendous rise seen a tremendous rise in ex the extent of glazing used fa aades. in building faades. This trend trend has slowly been gaining momentum in the market, Indian market , and is now accelerating. accelerating.

Meinhardt Faade Technology, were born of the need for forensic analysis of failed faades. Nowadays, developers and architects in mature markets know better and engage us from an early stage so as to avoid such problems. In other areas, we are still heavily involved in the investigation and repair of existing faades.

CE&CR: have to enter into CE&CR: Do you have any plans to enter into for orm ventur enture any form of joint venture with any of the domestic players in India? domestic players

international players may practise, we typically have offices in locations where we undertake projects. This provides us with the local presence and knowledge, but with the same international level of service.

M.A.: M.A .: This is currently not on the books. In the past, we have
always grown in an organic manner, with one of our existing offices spawning new ones. This strategy has worked very well for us, as it allowed for immediate efficiency and consistency. Therefore, we see no reason to change our approach in the nearterm.

CE&CR: Tell experience xperienc 'Meinhar Fa einhardt aade'? CE&CR: Tell us about global experience of 'Meinhardt Faade'? M.M.: All of our more than 130 dedicated faade staff work as
one large virtual team, regardless of their physical location. This was clearly evidenced when we designed the massive faade for New Delhi Airport Terminal 3 (150,000m , 5.2km long) in under
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CE&CR CR: are future far mark CE&CR : What are your future plans as far as Indian market is oncer erned? concerned? M.A.: M.A .: We see great potential for faade consulting in the Indian
market. As faade designs become ever more elaborate, and as developers and architects become more aware of the benefits of engaging faade engineers as part of the design team, so is our project base expected to grow. We are watching closely the demand in various parts of the country and envisage opening several more offices in time to come so as to better serve our clients.

three months using resources pulled from our global talent pool. In addition, our teams also have access to the wider network of offices and resources of Meinhardt Group, and thus are able to leverage off our expertise in other disciplines such as structural and MEP engineering, lighting design, ESD engineering, etc. This is how we realise our Group motto of "Global presence, local knowledge".

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