7th Edition – Zak World of Façades India

After six highly encouraging and successful editions around India, the 7th edition of Zak World of Façades returned to Bengaluru on 21st February 2014 at ITC Gardenia, with a zest for continued innovation in the façade technology.

The conference became an exhilarating affair with new speakers, topics and products that relayed the burning torch of bringing about the façade revolution, initiated 18 months ago in the same city of Bangalore.

About 315 representatives from architects, builders, façade consultants, contractors and others from the façade & fenestration fraternity were present throughout the four sessions. Each session revolved round different themes.

The morning session commenced with an informative and picturesque presentation on ‘Facades – more than skin deep’ by DiwakarChintala who’s the Design Director at Gensler. Presenting next was Simon Chin, Managing Director of Winwall Technologies, who spoke on ‘Importance of Façade Testing’. Up next was the pre-lunch session which saw two magnificent lectures on ‘Complex Façade Geometries’ and ‘Best Practise Façade Design – value of parametric design’ by two most promising façade consultants – Mahesh Arumugam, Director, Meinhardt Technologies and Lars Anders, Managing Director, Preidemann Façade Consultants respectively. Further NirajBorikar, Head – South & West for FunderMax showcased the ‘Artistic Dynamism in Façades’. The session ended with an interactive group discussion moderated by Satish Kumar from Indian Façade & Fenestration Association on “Conceiving a Healthy Façade Project” which included panelistsArRavindra Kumar, Design Director, Venkatramanan Associates, Harmeet Singh, Director, Global Façade Solutions,Varghese PV, CEO, Sobha Developers, Sankey Prasad, Chairman, Synergy Property Services, AsaithambiManickam, Director &COO, L&W Constructions and Mahesh Khaitan, Director, Salarpuria Group.

The third session began with an important panel discussion on ‘Efficient Façade System’ moderated by DevChandwani, CEO, Zak Trade Fairs & Exhibitions Pvt. Ltd. and SelvamRamanathan, CEO, Geotrix Building Envelopes. Key issues such daylighting, glare, fire-safety, structural and seismic considerations were discussed and a due thought was given to the façade guidelines. The panelists included Sanjay Balan Associate Director at RSP Design,GuruprakashSastry, Regional Manager, Infrastructures at Infosys,Mahesh Arumugam, Karan Keswani, Director, Aluplex Systems and BalajiKonidalafrom Balaji Building Technologies.

To sum up the session, a few very informative presentations were made highlighting the latest façade technology innovations. NirmitJhaveri, Architect of Light at Atelier Dada gave an enlightening presentation on ‘Façade Lighting – the zing thing’. Next to present wasAshok Khemlani, CMD at Clean India Group, who spoke about the Building Maintenance units for complex façade structures.The session ended with a high voltage presentation byAnil Agarwal from GlobalAluminium who spoke about the ‘High precision profiles for curtain walls’.

The last session went beyond energy efficiency and focused on Formulating the IFFA Guidelines for a seamless façade technology. It started with Sanjay Balan from RSP talking about ‘Future of Indian Façade Industry in Architectural Language’. It was followed by UdayShetty from Archintex speaking on ‘High end European hardware for curtain wall and windows’. The end of the conference saw the foundation of benchmark standards and guidelines in an exciting and engaging panel discussion. Moderated by SelvamRamanathan, the panelist included Gopal V, Executive Director, Prestige Developers, S Niranjan, Director, Davis & Langdon KPK, KamleshChoudhari, Director, Glass Wall Systems, Stuart Macaskie COO, Karle Infra&Lars Anders from Preidemann.

The exhibition display showcased some of the exclusive engineering components for façades, which included aluminium extrusions from Global Aluminium, glazing tapes fromPentagon, hardware from KinLong and Archintex, sealants from McCoy Soudal, high pressure laminates from Fundermax and high performance glass from Modiguard. Glass Wall Systems showcased their solutions for façade engineering and Clean India Group showcased their solutions for BMU & Façade maintenance.

This edition of Zak World of Façades was the first in the second phase of the series that shall mark a significant change in the façade industry in India with the setting up and formalization of the IFFA guidelines for façade and fenestration.