Copy of PRESENTATION

Démarche

Approach

Compliance with established budgets, current regulations, expected performance and the aesthetics defined by the project authors are the cornerstones of our approach.

Depending on the requests of our customers, we can take charge of many facade engineering missions thanks to our multidisciplinary team accumulating many years of experience in the world of building envelopes.

We have a pragmatic and rational approach to facade engineering; this method is implemented from the pre-study and will be applied until the completion of the site and the maintenance solutions for the works designed.

The experience and technical capabilities of our team in terms of designs or applications of facade systems, static or thermal calculations and design optimizations guarantee our customers the implementation of effective technical solutions with a quality report. / top notch price. Our various experiences and close contacts with our partners active in the production and/or installation of facade elements allow us to make the link between the study, production and implementation of architectural facades by not being content technical studies but guaranteeing optimized production and on-site operations as simple as possible.

Our regulatory knowledge of the world of building envelopes also allows us to support project authors in the design of facades via detailed technical preliminary projects and budget studies allowing us to better define the tender documents for businesses.

The study office

A complete traditional facade project mission revolves around the following different tasks:

The system design (SD)

This is the part of the project where we will have to translate the specifications of the specifications and the expected performance into a carpentry product and make an initial analysis of how we will be able to integrate these specifications into the overall project of the building. If we cannot find corresponding commercial products, or if for reasons of economies of scale this proves necessary, we can also create specific profiles or concepts to meet the needs of the project. The design system stage must also allow an in-depth analysis of the feasibility of applying the system in all the specific areas of the project (corner, buildings, base, parapets, balcony, etc.). This step also makes it possible to understand how the envelope will be installed and will define the maximum sizes and weights of the elements that can be installed accordingly.

Approval plans / architectures

Once the general concept of the envelope is validated, we can move on to the detailed plans of all the elements of the building envelope which will allow the architect and the control offices to check that the project respects the requirements of the imposed specifications and performance (CPE, acoustics, etc.). These plans will show in detail:

Joinery, ironwork or metalwork systems applied to the project
Screening or shading systems.
Anchoring and fixing systems,
The principles of insulation and watertightness and airtightness of joinery
All the specific details relating to the projects such as a flame arrester system, a system guaranteeing the safety of people, etc.
The elevation plans, sections and plan views that will allow you to position each element in the project.
Any other relevant detail allowing the architect and the other project companies to coordinate the connections of the other lots with the building envelope (typically, these are the waterproofing lots, false ceilings, false floors, development of the surroundings, and special technique).

The technical file

This part is treated at the same time as the previous one; it is a question of compiling all the technical data sheets of the materials or products that we are going to use on the project in order to have them validated.It can also be for carpentry products technical approvals or test reports demonstrating that such a range of products corresponds to the needs of the project.When developing a new product (new extrusion for example) it will be necessary to demonstrate that it complies with the standards in force and a mockup aimed at demonstrating the performance of the new product designed will be necessary.

Calculation notes

this part is also treated simultaneously with the two previous ones. These are mainly static calculation notes which make it possible to demonstrate that the products used meet the local requirements of the project (dead weight, loading according to the category of the building, climatic loads such as wind or snow, etc.).
It can also be a more specific calculation note relating to the thermal or acoustics of the facade elements.
The objective is however the same for all types of calculation notes: it must make it possible to precisely define the thicknesses of steel or aluminum to be used for the anchorages, the thicknesses of the glazing, the inertia and the materials of the profiles to use, types of anchors to apply, …. In order to guarantee before the realization that the finished project will meet the expectations of the customer

The objective of these 3 steps is to obtain validation of the documents by the various project stakeholders in order to be able to launch production.

Workshop and production plans

This stage of the work is relatively little known to the project stakeholders because it is more specifically intended for the production of the elements that will have to be implemented; however, this is an essential step in a facade project because it is what will determine the accuracy of the elements that will have to be installed on the site and which will guarantee the ease and speed of the installation of the elements. of facade. It is clear that the objective will generally be to prefabricate as many elements as possible for two main reasons:

It is much easier to achieve high levels of quality in a workshop because the working conditions on site are generally much more complicated (coactivity, bad weather, lack of space, etc.)
The higher the level of pre-assembly of the elements to be installed, the faster and easier the installation operations will be.

The production file

The production file will therefore cover each element of the project in an exhaustive manner and will allow the various partners of the facade designer to manufacture them in accordance with what has been defined in terms of type of materials, finish, thickness, form of drilling , cutting, …For the carpentry part strictly speaking, it will mainly be a question of lists of profile cuts, machining plans and assembly plans.We will also take advantage of this stage to define the packaging and develop the types of packaging necessary for transporting the elements.In the context of a major project, the timing of the various production sequences must obviously be taken into account in order to guarantee the fluidity of installation operations.

Installation plans and installation methodology

Lhe formalization of this step comes quite late in the drawing process, however, we must take into account from the beginning of the design the realities of the project in order to define the possibilities of installations which will themselves be directly dependent on the schedules of deliveries, the presence or not of a large storage area, the possibility of using external or internal lifting means, the possibility of working from the inside or the outside, etc.

For these various reasons, the design office, in collaboration with the site manager, will establish an installation methodology in line with the reality of the site.For the plans strictly speaking, these are working documents which will be used by the installation teams and the site manager and which will detail very precisely where and how the various elements delivered to the site are installed.

The As-built folder and the DAO

Once the site is nearing completion, an important step is the delivery of an As-built file to the future building managers. It is a global compilation of all the documents which allowed the construction of the project and which should allow in case of repair, adaptation, enlargement, … to work on known bases.

In the same vein, the DAO (Dossier Adapté à l'Ouvrage) will be used by building managers to have a perfect knowledge of the elements of the facades in order to be able to maintain the facade as it should. The Dao will take up in an exhaustive manner the recommendations and maintenance methodologies, and methods for the possible replacement of damaged elements.

We obviously do not limit ourselves to the production of a complete file. Depending on the client's needs, we take care of specific parts of these different stages.

We can also intervene in support of developers (architect, real estate) for facade pre-studies which generally corresponds to a “light” design system phase allowing the contours of the facade lot to be precisely defined. This mission generally goes hand in hand with a budget estimate and a technical description and has the ultimate objective of allowing the contracting authority to launch calls for tenders on the basis of a completed technical file and making it possible to facilitate the comparison between the different bidders. These missions are very developed on the French market but unfortunately still remain anecdotal on Luxembourg or Belgium.

See our different projects under study

Management and expertise

We can also provide our customers with engineers, architects or technicians who will partially or fully take charge, depending on the needs, of the management of your facade project, the management of facade installation operations on site or more specific management. installation team.

Project managementis a technical-administrative mission that will serve to steer the “façade” project throughout the course of the project, from the technical pre-studies to the acceptance of the work.
The most common tasks in this mission are:
- The study and exhaustive analysis of the tender documents to accurately identify the ins and outs of the project.
- Coordination between the design office and the various site stakeholders (architects, client, control offices, general contractor).
- To make a pre-analysis of the documents to be transmitted to ensure that they correspond well to the descriptions/performances of the project.
- The follow-up of the comments to the documents transmitted with the aim of helping the design office to update these remarks while remaining within the timing of the project.
- The preparation of tender documents (subcontracting, supply, production,  ….) and the analysis of tenders
- Development of a quality plan for the project
- Pricing for any additional work
- The development of a project schedule and its regular updating in order to be able to define with precision the resources necessary for the smooth running of the project
- Project budget monitoring
- Preparation of monthly progress reports
- Instructions to accounting for monthly invoicing
- Preparation of a weekly activity report
- …
Site managementis also a technical-administrative mission that is oriented and focused on the construction site and the logistics of supplies.
This mission will begin at the beginning of the project with a pre-analysis of the installation methodologies with the design office to define what are the technical and physical possibilities of the site with regard to the installation.
The most common tasks in this mission are:
- The development of installation methodology for the different types of facades
- The development of the PPSS (Special Health and Safety Plan) for the installation operations according to the installation methodologies adopted
- The possible analysis of the bids of the installers if they are subcontracted
- The development in collaboration with the project manager of site self-checks.
- The development of a specific installation schedule and its regular update in order to be able to correctly manage the workload of the installation teams and to coordinate the work of the co-contractors with the general contractor.
- The call for materials according to the progress of the installation
- Weekly participation in site technical coordination meetings
- Management of installation teams
- Management of material delivery logistics
- Waste Management
- Qualitative monitoring of installation operations
- Assistance to the customer and to the installers during reception operations
- …
Expertise or technical advice: in the event of disputes or problems on one of your sites, we can make available a person with extensive experience in architectural facades to visit the site and establish a diagnosis of the problems or to give a specific opinion on a particular related subject to a difficulty encountered on your worksites.
It can also be specific assistance for the visit of a production plant, or a supplier for which our customers generally have little technical knowledge allowing them to get a precise idea of the situation.

See our different management projects