Dekton® façades: More than just a pretty face
Tags: Cosentino, Dekton, Dekton by Cosentinio, Dekton by Cosentino, facades, news and events, Projects | 3 years ago | Written by: Cosentino
Over recent years, there has been a shift away from traditional façade materials, such as concrete, brick, cement render and aluminium, to more contemporary choices. Dekton® is a beautiful façade surface, but it’s certainly more than just a pretty face. Its unique qualities offer superior performance, durability, and minimal maintenance, while its vast array of colours and patterns allow for endless design possibilities.
Dekton® can be used for ventilated or bonded façades. For a ventilated façade, Dekton® protects the structural wall with an exterior skin, and design loads are effectively transferred back to the structural wall to create a stable, safe façade. An ascending air chamber with chimney effect between the insulation and Dekton® façade has thermal, acoustic, and functional benefits, enhancing the operation and efficiency of the building.
Wood Bagot designed the lobby and garage entrance of Central Park Tower – Perth’s tallest building – with a ventilated façade. Dekton® Zenith in 12-millimetre-thick, large-format slabs provides lightweight cladding, and the clean, white, matte finish brings lightness and elegance to the interior and exterior, while respecting the base building architecture.
For a bonded façade, Dekton® is adhered or mechanically fixed directly on to the supporting sub-structure. This enables older buildings to be upgraded and modernised with new façades, and also allows for a small cavity between the inner and outer surfaces, venting any moisture away from the façade and improving thermal conditions.
Rawsons Appliances’ bathroom showroom in Adelaide had a modern update in 2018. Rawsons acquired the 1940s house next door to its existing building and created a monolithic façade using Dekton® Sirius and Orix. The textured-black, large-format tiles have minimal joins, and the 8-millimetre thickness of the slabs offers a lighter-weight cladding suitable for a bonded façade. The Dekton® slabs were glued to cement sheet substrate mechanically fixed to the LVL frames, and a direct-stick method was based on weight, ease of install and price.
A building façade is prone to age and wear as it endures the elements. The low porosity of Dekton® makes it impervious to the elements. It is highly resistant to UV light, scratches and stains, so the façade won’t fade or degrade over time. And it is unaffected by hot and cold temperatures, so it can endure heat, frost and thawing, and its low porosity makes it completely waterproof.
Being resilient to water, Dekton® was the perfect choice for the breathtaking, 22-metre man-made waterfall at Crown Group’s new luxury residential development Waterfall. Designed by Waterforms International, the jaw-dropping waterfall, set amid a lush vertical garden with more than 5,000 tropical plants, provides urban dwellers with a connection to nature. Waterforms selected Dekton® because the size of the sheets meant fewer joins, and it’s also lightweight, maintenance-free and impervious to water.
Offered in more than 50 colours and patterns, there is a Dekton surface to suit every style and setting. Colours are complementary to timber, concrete, steel and other exterior materials and surfaces, and are a versatile choice in traditional, classic, modern and contemporary environments. Varying thicknesses can be selected based on the application, and the options of tiles or large-format slabs can be used to create the desired effect.
For the new Westfield in Newmarket, Auckland, Scentre Group used Dekton® Danae on the façade and create a striated pattern mimicking traditional brickwork. It is contemporary while respecting the context, and it creates more visual interest as well as breaking up the large mass of the building.
Dekton® is ideal for a broad range of residential, hospitality and commercial settings. With its advanced technological qualities, Dekton® is low maintenance and easy to clean, prolonging the lifetime of a building façade and reducing the operational costs of maintaining it. Its range of colours and patterns allow for endless design possibilities, and its exceptional durability and performance mean it’s so much more than just a pretty face.
Discover your options with Dekton façades here.
