Curtain Wall Façades Explained
The glass-and-aluminium skin you see on Accra’s office towers and corporate headquarters is a curtain wall — and it is one of the most misunderstood and most cost-significant elements of a commercial building. If you are specifying or pricing a commercial project, understanding the curtain wall is how you avoid both an under-specified envelope that fails and an over-specified one that wastes budget. This article explains it.
What a Curtain Wall Actually Is
A curtain wall is a non-structural outer envelope — typically aluminium framing infilled with glass or panels — hung from the building’s structural frame. It carries no floor or roof load; it carries only its own weight and resists wind, water, and solar gain, transferring those loads back to the structure.
This is the key distinction from blockwork: a blockwork-and-render wall is built up from the ground and often load-bearing or infill within the frame; a curtain wall is a separate, engineered cladding system fixed to the frame floor by floor. They are different products with different costs, different programmes, and different specialists.
What a Curtain Wall Does
A well-designed curtain wall manages several things at once:
- Weather — keeps wind-driven rain out, which in Ghana’s climate is a serious test
- Solar gain and glare — controls how much heat and light enter, directly affecting cooling load and running cost
- Daylight and views — the architectural reason it is specified in the first place
- Movement — accommodates the building’s thermal and structural movement without cracking or leaking
What Drives the Cost
Curtain walling is a high-value envelope element, and its cost is driven by specification, not floor area:
- Glass specification — single vs double glazing, solar-control and low-E coatings, tints, safety glass
- Framing system — stick-built (assembled on site) vs unitised (factory-assembled panels), and the grade of the aluminium system
- Performance requirements — wind load, water-tightness, and thermal performance targets
- Geometry — flat façades are simpler and lower-cost than curved, faceted, or feature elements
- Height and access — taller buildings carry more installation cost and complexity
Because of this, a curtain wall’s cost cannot be read off a rate. It is measured and priced in the Bill of Quantities like every other element — see Commercial Construction Cost & BoQ.
Why Quality Decides Whether It Performs
A curtain wall is only as good as its design, fabrication, and installation. The failures that appear years after handover — water ingress, condensation, failed seals, thermal noise — almost always trace back to a system specified or installed without the right discipline. In Ghana’s hot, humid, rain-driven climate, the envelope is tested hard, which makes proper specification and installation non-negotiable.
A serious commercial build treats the curtain wall as an engineered system: designed to a defined performance, fabricated to that design, and installed by a specialist — all built to L.I. 1630 and the Ghana Building Code (GS 1207:2018), with registered GhIE engineering input where the structure and façade interface.
Get the Envelope Right From the Start
The curtain wall is one of the elements where a low number up front becomes an expensive problem later. Specify it properly, price it in a measured BoQ, and install it with a contractor who treats it as engineering — not decoration.
A classified, credentialed contractor since 1977, Construct GH delivers commercial buildings end-to-end — structure, envelope, and fit-out — across Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, and Lomé, Togo. Request a capability statement: +233 23 063 0028.
Related Reading
- Commercial Construction in Ghana — structure to fit-out
- Structural Steel Erection — the frame the façade hangs from
- Commercial Construction Cost & BoQ — pricing the envelope