Wikipedia
A curtain wall system is an outer covering of a building in which the outer walls are non-structural, but merely keep the weather out and the occupants in. As the curtain wall is non-structural it can be made of a lightweight material, reducing construction costs. When glass is used as the curtain wall, a great advantage is that natural light can penetrate deeper within the building. The curtain wall façade does not carry any dead load weight from the building other than its own dead load weight. The wall transfers horizontal wind loads that are incident upon it to the main building structure through connections at floors or columns of the building. A curtain wall is designed to resist air and water infiltration, sway induced by wind and seismic forces acting on the building, and its own dead load weight forces.
Curtain-wall systems are typically designed with extruded aluminum members, although the first curtain walls were made of steel. The aluminium frame is typically infilled with glass, which provides an architecturally pleasing building, as well as benefits such as daylighting. However, parameters related to solar gain control such as thermal comfort and visual comfort are more difficult to control when using highly glazed curtain walls. Other common infills include: stone veneer, metal panels, louvres, and operable windows or vents.
Curtain walls differ from store-front systems in that they are designed to span multiple floors, and take into consideration design requirements such as: thermal expansion and contraction; building sway and movement; water diversion; and thermal efficiency for cost-effective heating, cooling, and lighting in the building.
Curtain wall may refer to:
- Curtain wall (architecture), the outer skin of a modern building
- Curtain wall (fortification), the outer wall of a castle or defensive wall between two bastions
- Curtain wall (construction), dust barriers for construction
Usage examples of "curtain wall".
Ivar, a young man with a bowl-shaped mop of yellow hair, pointed to a gap in the curtain wall.
The purple shadow of the curtain wall lay unbroken across the courtyard, but the sky was pale blue without a cloud, and on the western merlons the sunlight lay sharp and bright.
Young Ostrael of Runchester stood shivering on the curtain wall and reflected on what his father had once said.
It has even been used on me: My foster-sister Arianeira used it to break the Curtain Wall and let the Imperial armadas into the Bawn of Keltia.
If anyone was going to go down to the houses inside the outer curtain wall this was the only road they could follow.
Block it off, if you must use every stone block in the curtain wall.
The ramp ran between the outer curtain wall and the base of the citadel proper, and the fairly narrow way was dark and dank.
Soot stains marked some of the arrow loops, and here and there a crack or a missing merlon could be seen in the curtain wall, but it seemed little enough from this distance.
A roof of rushes and a curtain wall of rubble on either end of the ornate altar had converted the remaining space into a dwelling of sorts.
A roof of rushes and a curtain wall of rubble on either end of the ornate altar had converted the remainding space into a dwelling of sorts.
Several times on the way he had to suspend all movement and hang motionless while the watchman above halted briefly at the turn to stare out over the cleared ground, as he must have been staring at intervals all the time Yves was making his way here to the precarious shelter of the curtain wall.
Purposefully, Bella led the others down into a corner of the garden that sloped into the corner of the curtain wall opposite the front gate.
Both its heat and the clatter of horses' hooves were magnified, trapped between the sheer side of the Manse and the high curtain wall.