{"id":20312,"date":"2022-01-17T08:54:29","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T06:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.klicarquitectos.com\/types-of-facade-spain\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T02:54:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T00:54:40","slug":"types-of-facade-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.klicarquitectos.com\/en\/types-of-facade-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"Types of Facade: Characteristics and Advantages"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are four types of facade<\/strong> you will meet again and again on the Costa del Sol. Each one behaves differently under the M\u00e1laga sun, and each one lets you down in its own particular way. Here is what separates them.<\/p>\n

A facade is the first thing anyone sees of a building, so it tends to get discussed as though it were only a matter of looks. It is not. The facade is the coat: it wraps the rooms inside, keeps the heat out in August, keeps the damp out in winter and takes the salt air that comes with the coast. Get it right and the property is comfortable and cheap to run. Get it wrong and you pay for it every month in air-conditioning bills.<\/p>\n

One thing worth knowing before you start, if you are buying here from the UK or northern Europe. In a block of flats the facade is common property under Spanish law (the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal<\/em>). You do not own your share of it; the residents’ association (comunidad de propietarios<\/em>) does, and any change to it goes to a vote of the owners. On a house the facade is yours, but altering it almost always needs planning permission (licencia de obras<\/em>) from the town hall, even when the work looks like straightforward maintenance. Part of our job as architects in M\u00e1laga<\/a> is getting that paperwork right before the scaffolding goes up.<\/p>\n

So: what each one does well, and what the catch is with each.<\/p>\n

Four types of facade, and what each one is for<\/h2>\n

Lightweight facade<\/h3>\n

The lightweight facade (fachada ligera<\/em>) is the one you see on larger buildings: offices, hotels, taller residential blocks. It is fixed to the building’s structural frame without forming part of it. It carries its own weight and the wind load, but it adds nothing to the stability of the building.<\/p>\n

There are two versions. A curtain wall runs continuously past the floor slabs; a panel facade is interrupted at every slab. The distinction matters for how the joints move and where water is most likely to get in.<\/p>\n

Two reasons to choose it:<\/p>\n