Volume, shape and size on facades

With regard to walls, SanMarco terracotta is at its best in fair-faced cladding solutions, in which various forms (bricks, hollow tiles, slats and architectural elements) combine in different ways to express the character of designs conceived specifically to showcase the attractiveness and versatility of terracotta.

The Sustainable Lightness of Terracotta

If we consider and analyse the evolution of terracotta in building envelopes, today we see a tendency that’s increasingly marked: the gradual restriction of brickwork to the outermost layer of the building; it is used as a fine cladding or skin.

When used in this way, brick therefore has the aesthetic role of being the fair-face of the building but also the functional task of protecting it from the weather and ensuring a comfortable interior. In such cases, terracotta often takes the form of thin strips, glued to the cladding or structural support and – in a departure from the image of solid, load-bearing masonry – becomes a thin, diaphanous and supported element. In a word, lightweight.