Terracotta Panel Cladding
Performance & Sustainability
Terracotta offers excellent thermal mass, absorbing and storing heat during the day and releasing it slowly at night. This helps regulate indoor temperatures and reduces energy consumption for heating and cooling. The material is also non-combustible, UV-resistant, and colour-permanent. A key sustainability advantage is its longevity—terracotta facades are designed to last 100 years with minimal maintenance.
Terracotta's sustainability case rests on its exceptional longevity and recyclability. An EPD for a representative ceramic façade panel declares a reference service life of at least 50 years, aligning with the building's lifespan. At end-of-life, the material is 100% recyclable; the same EPD indicates that all 57 kg per m² of panel waste is directed to recycling, with zero landfill. Its embodied carbon is moderate. In a comparative study, ceramic cladding emitted 2818 kgCO₂e for a 20 m² unit, about 37.7% less than aluminium composite panels but higher than solid wood. The primary environmental load comes from the high-temperature firing process, but this is partially offset by the material's thermal mass, which can reduce operational energy demand over the building's life.
Performance & Sustainability
Terracotta offers excellent thermal mass, absorbing and storing heat during the day and releasing it slowly at night. This helps regulate indoor temperatures and reduces energy consumption for heating and cooling. The material is also non-combustible, UV-resistant, and colour-permanent. A key sustainability advantage is its longevity—terracotta facades are designed to last 100 years with minimal maintenance.
Terracotta's sustainability case rests on its exceptional longevity and recyclability. An EPD for a representative ceramic façade panel declares a reference service life of at least 50 years, aligning with the building's lifespan. At end-of-life, the material is 100% recyclable; the same EPD indicates that all 57 kg per m² of panel waste is directed to recycling, with zero landfill. Its embodied carbon is moderate. In a comparative study, ceramic cladding emitted 2818 kgCO₂e for a 20 m² unit, about 37.7% less than aluminium composite panels but higher than solid wood. The primary environmental load comes from the high-temperature firing process, but this is partially offset by the material's thermal mass, which can reduce operational energy demand over the building's life.
Terracotta (fired clay) cladding is a traditional material reimagined for modern facades. It is typically installed as a rear-ventilated rainscreen system.
Design & Installation
A terracotta rainscreen system consists of a load-bearing wall, insulation, an air and moisture barrier, and the terracotta panels fixed to a sub-frame. The panels are mechanically fastened to horizontal aluminium rails using stainless steel clips, creating a back-ventilated and drained cavity. Panels are available in standard widths of 150–600 mm and lengths of 300–1800 mm, with thicknesses of 20 mm or 30 mm. The open-jointed design shields the structural wall from wind-driven rain while ventilating the air space to mitigate mould and mildew growth.