curtain wall
Sign in to saveAlso known as cladding, enclosure wall, window wall
outer non-structural walls of a building
~26 min read
Encyclopedic overview
A building project in Wuhan, China, demonstrating the relationship between the inner load-bearing structure and an exterior glass curtain wall Curtain walls are also used on residential structures.
Curtain walls are non-structural exterior building walls. They protect the interior of the building from the elements but since they carry no structural load beyond their own dead-load weight, they can be made of lightweight materials. They transfer lateral wind loads to the main building's structure through connections at floors or columns.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “curtain wall” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.