Thanks to the collaboration between Aliva S.r.l. and Mirage S.p.A., through the firm Porcer, which distributes Mirage products throughout the Mexican market, the possibility of handling the planning and manufacture of the aluminium alloy substructure and the glazed porcelain tiling for the external cladding of two large residential buildings in the city of Guadalajara was made acheiveable.
The two buildings stand next to a golf course in a prestigious area of Guadalajara (located in the central-western area of Mexico):  the goal of architect Cesar Pacheco Delgado was to enhance the facade by using an innovative and prized solution which was safe and reliable. The ventilated facade using porcelain tile cladding was thus the most appropriate choice from both the aesthetic and technical/structural viewpoints.
In fact, one of the main problems faced during the design stage was that the Guadalajara area, like most of the Mexican territory, is subject to earthquakes.
The first planning step taken by Aliva’s staff was to determine the movements of the reinforced concrete structure (the building’s backbone) in the event of a high intensity earthquake.
These movements occur due to the connection system between the gasbeton curtain walls and the concrete load-bearing structures: thus, if the building is subjected to an earthquake, it is free to deform without the elements that make up the curtain crumbling from the pressure of the pillars due to the geometric deformation of the structural frame.
How could the external skin, in the event of structural deformation, withstand such stress without damaging the tiled face? For obvious architectural and aesthetic reasons, it was impossible to implement 5cm curtain joints like the ones used in the substructure. The solution was found by using different layers of thickness in the facade, so that, in the event of an earthquake, they are able to follow the movements of the different surfaces of the building, without ever clashing with each other.