Building façades play a vital role in shaping urban landscapes. They enhance the visual appeal of a cityscape, adding character, beauty, and uniqueness to the built environment. A façade’s design helps a building and the businesses within it establish a distinct identity, subtly yet powerfully communicating a brand or ethos.  

At Chetwoods, façades are regarded as key elements in the development of new architectural typologies. We have created a sophisticated computer model that allows us to test and analyse every detail of a façade’s design and specification. This includes aspects such as orientation, materials, and the relationships the façade fosters between adjacent uses and its surrounding context.  

Last year, our international United Studio team was invited to a competition for the façade design of a building in Guangzhou, commissioned by a global fashion brand. Key considerations for the project included functionality, sustainability, and brand character.  

The design team carefully examined the brand’s characteristics as they developed a range of options to convey a sense of ’Dynamic Elegance’. The concept drew inspiration from the fluidity and movement of fashion, integrating dynamic elements into the building's façade. Just as fabric drapes, weaves, and flows, the design incorporated parametric forms and textured surfaces to create an ever-changing appearance that responds to light, shadow, and the surrounding environment.  

The design team explored two main façade-articulation strategies: ‘draping and weaving’. The draping approach mimicked the way fabric naturally folds and flows, introducing vertical and curved elements that created a visually soft yet structured composition. The weaving concept, on the other hand, utilised interlaced components to represent the connectivity and integration within the brand’s vast supply chain.  

These approaches aimed to offer distinct visual identities, both rooted in textile craftsmanship but reinterpreted through architectural materials. This project exemplified the fusion of fashion and architecture, proving that even large-scale industrial buildings can be expressive, adaptive, and environmentally responsible.