Rainscreen Cladding

The dreadful fire at London's Grenfell Tower has brought into focus the thus far largely unheard of world of rain screen cladding.   In the Grenfell Tower case the insulation behind the aluminium cladding is being cited as the reason for the massive spread of the fire up the outside of the tower.   We shall see when full and proper investigations have been done.

Our annex has rain screen cladding too but it is minute in comparison:

click to enlarge

A great deal of thought went into the design of the annex by architect Stuart Green who specified zinc rain screen cladding for its appearance and for its ability to keep the weather out.   I well remember him being asked by his assistant Maarten Kleinhout if there was to be insulation behind the cladding.   Equally, I remember Stuart Green's instruction.   No!