Exploring Brise Soleil Facade Walls: Architectural Function and Design
A brise soleil, is a sunscreen used in large scale for building architectural elements. The nane is a term originating from French, which translates directly to “sun breaker.” In architectural usage, a brise soleil is a structural element, often a screen or latticework, designed to control or reduce the amount of sunlight entering a building.
By selectively blocking direct light, brise soleils help to regulate temperature, reduce glare, and provide shade. These elements can be made from various materials such as wood, metal, or concrete. Designs can range from simple geometric patterns to complex, intricate forms that blend and in some cases such as the example below can accentuate the visual interest of a facade and in other cases blend in with the remainder of the building’s architecture.
The picture below shows a building with a steel panel system installed in front of the original existing exterior facade of the building. These panels are made from a laser cut ferrous steel. The panels have a rust-like exterior finish which is from a combination of special rust inducing chemical treatment with a later successively applied chemical neutralizer that has been applied to freeze the chemical reaction action from continuing beyond the selected point of oxidation which it has currently reached at the surface of the decorative panel.
Many people simply consider rust to be a bad thing, a problem which needs to be dealt with or corrected. Rust, accurately, is a type of deterioration to ferrous metals. Ferrous metals are a class or family of metals which are largely composed of iron. Steel is a type of ferrous metal and there are many different classifications or types of steel, for example. Commonly known examples include corten steel, stainless steel, mild steel, and many others. They range in specific manufacturing processes, composition, chemical makeup and characteristics related to strength.
The designers of this building chose this edgy industrial aesthetic because they thought it looked unique and interesting. They are right, the visual design is very effective, but to some people rust simply looks bad and they will never like it. Aesthetic design, like art and fashion, is subjective. One person’s preferred construction element might be something that other people simply do not like.
The real building envelope is the portion of the facade behind the steel panels. The perforated brise soleil steel panel system is set away from the majority of the real building facade or building envelope, but in the picture below you can see an example of where a portion of the original brick facade peaks out and is visible and one of the intended omission areas of the panel system. This is a light colored brick masonry. Similar to many of the brick masonry buildings that we look at almost every single week, this structural facade is actually similar to many of the buildings built in the mid 20th century: it’s simply built with brick and mortar.
Similar to many urban high-rise buildings with a curtain wall, the metal panel system here in front of the existing masonry and glass substrate wall is built without any exposed fasteners at the surface or visible from the street or exterior of the site. The size and shape of both the panels themselves and the cutouts inside of those panels is somewhat randomized and varied.
It’s somewhat consistent from one panel to the next, but one important distinction in similarity is that where panels join at top and bottom edges, they are almost completely consistent in width. That allows panels that are stacked one above or below the other to mount to a shared purlin or vertical element that serves the function of a typical stud in basic contemporary construction.
Curtain wall assemblies are a somewhat modern assembly configuration used in some types of commercial, industrial, and often residential high-end building envelopes, offering significant advantages over traditional masonry walls. However, as we have shown here, make no mistake, the actual building envelope itself here is still glass and masonry.
Unlike typical masonry load-bearing walls though, curtain walls are usually non-load-bearing, allowing for greater design flexibility and larger spans of panels. 
In most cases, contemporary curtain wall panels are typically constructed by fabricating most of the components in a controlled factory environment and then assembling the panels and the support framework system on-site. This offsite prefabrication process is intended to improve the precision of dimensional consistency and coordination, and the application of the panel finishes.
In this coming week’s blog, we will continue looking at different elements from the example of this particular building and talk about details of how the structural load path of the ground level of building is both aesthetically improved, and somewhat hidden by this panel system but also set back or staggered in a way that differentiates the building from the foundation which adds a subtle but discernible visual impact.
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Our company focuses on historic restoration more than modern building upkeep, maintenance, and construction, but our company understands both types of construction very well and a full picture well-rounded approach is needed in any niche in the construction industry. Although we focus on historic restoration, repointing, tuckpointing and historic brick repair, our company also has technical knowledge and competencies in the areas of modern and contemporary construction as well as we become one of the leaders in that area of the market today. Understanding both historic and modern or contemporary construction is useful because both aspects help understand the challenges and potential solutions for challenges in building science and construction.
We can help with a variety of historic masonry restoration needs and upkeep, from modest tuckpointing and or repointing to complicated and extensive historic masonry restoration. Infinity Design Solutions is a historic restoration specialist contractor specializing in both historic masonry restoration such as tuckpointing our repointing, and brick repair. If you have questions about the architectural details or facade of your historic building in Washington DC, reach out and say hello and if we can help we’ll be glad to assist you. You can email us or call us on the telephone at the following link: contact us here.
