The model in one paragraph

Design & Supply means one coordinated facade company engineers the envelope, fabricates it in its plant, quality-controls it, packs it into containers, and hands it to the site with the drawings, manuals and engineering support needed for installation. The appointed local contractor or glazier erects the envelope, while engineering and production accountability remain connected across the border.

What we deliver

Engineering: calculations, system drawings, shop drawings for your approval. Fabrication in our plant under a documented QA trail — dimensional reports, glazing records, mock-ups where the detail warrants one. Test reports for the specified performance. Packing engineered as an installation sequence, not a shipping afterthought. And support at three levels: manuals and remote engineering as standard, a supervising engineer for the critical first panels when your crew wants it, or full installation for the right project.

What stays on your side

Site survey and setting-out verification, the main structure itself, cranage and access, permits that require local licensure, and the installation crew. We support every one of these — our setting-out drawings are written for a surveyor who has never hung a curtain wall — but the contracts sit locally, which is exactly why the model works.

Where the risks sit — and how they are managed

The honest risks of D&S are interfaces and freight. Interfaces: who owns the embed, the bracket, the sealant line. We resolve this with a written scope matrix before any deposit — if a line is not in our quotation, we say so in writing. Freight: containers can be delayed. We build programme float and pack a documented spares strategy, because a missing gasket should never stop a crew.

Quality risk is the one people worry about most and manage most easily: every panel is numbered, recorded and photographed before it leaves the plant.

Is D&S right for you?

If you have, or can appoint, a competent local contractor — D&S is almost always the strongest value. If your project is remote from any qualified installer, talk to us about our installation options. Either way, the first conversation is the same: send drawings or photos, and we will tell you plainly what the envelope needs.

Option 1 · Your crew, our manuals

The standard Design & Supply route. You receive level-by-level installation packs: setting-out drawings, panel schedules, fixing sequences, torque tables and a sealant specification. Your local crew erects the envelope; our engineers answer field questions remotely, within one working day.

This is the most economical option and works well for straightforward envelopes with experienced glaziers. Hillcrest Residence ran on this model with just a supervised start.

Option 2 · Your crew, our engineer on site

For crews new to the system, or owners who want certainty, we place an installation engineer on site — typically for the first one to three weeks. The engineer runs the setting-out verification, trains the crew on the first panels, audits the sealant work, and hands over a photographed inspection record before leaving.

Supervision is a weekly-rate add-on, scoped in writing before it starts. For most self-builds and first-time facade contractors, it is the single highest-value line in the budget.

Option 3 · Our installation

For the right projects, we take the envelope to completion with our own or partner crews — typically where the client has no qualified local installer, or in markets where we hold established installation partners. These projects are assessed individually: budget, location, schedule and local regulations all weigh in, and the contract separates supply warranty from installation warranty so responsibility is never ambiguous.

We are candid about fit: if your local market has strong glaziers, Option 1 or 2 will usually serve you better.

How to choose

Ask three questions. Has your crew erected curtain wall before? Is the envelope geometry standard or bespoke? And what does a week of programme delay cost you? Experienced crew and standard geometry — Option 1. New crew or a prized finish — Option 2. No qualified installer within reach — ask us about Option 3. Tell us your preference in your enquiry and we will price the envelope accordingly.

Design & engineering (weeks 1–4)

From your drawings — or photos and dimensions if drawings are still in progress — we develop system selection, performance specification and a fixed quotation. On acceptance, engineering begins: calculations, system drawings, then shop drawings issued for your approval. This phase moves as fast as your review turnaround.

Approval gate (week 4–5)

You approve shop drawings, finishes against physical samples, and the glass performance specification. This gate is the single most common delay in every facade programme — not engineering, not fabrication, but approval latency. Nominate one approver with a 48-hour turnaround and you have bought yourself a month.

Fabrication (weeks 5–14)

Machining, finishing, glazing, cassette assembly where applicable — all under the QA regime, with dimensional and glazing records kept per panel. Mid-fabrication we invite you, or your representative, to a video inspection of the mock-up or first completed panels. Changes after this point are expensive; changes before it are usually free.

Freight & customs (weeks 14–18)

Packing is engineered as installation sequence — containers are loaded bay by bay, level by level, so your crew unpacks in build order. We ship with a full packing manifest and customs documentation package. Ocean transit runs roughly two to six weeks depending on destination, and customs clearance anywhere from days to two weeks with proper paperwork.

Site handover (week 18 onward)

Your crew receives installation packs before the container docks, so training can begin early. We recommend unpacking and condition-checking within 48 hours of arrival — our packing is designed for it, and early discovery keeps any transit claim simple.

Where projects actually lose time

In our experience, in order: approval latency, late design changes, customs paperwork started after shipping, and site readiness — brackets and embeds not verified before the container lands. Every one of these is a calendar risk you control. The fabrication itself is rarely the problem; our plant has held every contracted ex-works date.

1. Who engineers it?

Ask who signs the calculations, and whether the engineering is done in-house or bought in as a template. A facade is a structural product; the supplier should speak about loads, deflection and movements the way a structural engineer speaks about columns — fluently and with your project's numbers, not generic ones.

2. What exactly is in the container?

A professional quotation reads like a manifest: system components by line, glazing build-up by elevation, fixings, gaskets, sealant, setting-out hardware, spares. If the answer is 'complete curtain wall', keep asking. The container is where ambiguous quotations become change orders.

3. What do the test reports cover?

Reports exist for specific build-ups under specific standards. Ask whether the tested configuration matches your glazing, your spans and your wind loads. See our certifications guide for the full checklist — the short version: report plus certificate, matched to your configuration, from a laboratory you can name.

4. Who fixes problems at 2 a.m.?

Not rhetorically — ask what happens when a question stops the crew during installation. Ours is a written commitment: field questions answered within one working day, with an engineer who has seen your drawings — not a salesperson reading from a catalogue. Ask for the escalation path in writing before you pay a deposit.

5. What happens at the interface?

Every import project lives or dies at the joints between scopes: who drills the embeds, who verifies the slab edge, who owns the sealant line between the facade and the neighbour's wall. The supplier should raise these questions before you do — a scope matrix agreed in writing is the mark of someone who has done this before. If the conversation never gets more specific than price per square metre, walk.

Freeze the right information

An export facade becomes predictable when geometry, performance criteria, finishes, interfaces and approvals are frozen before fabrication. Shop-drawing approval is not an administrative signature; it is the point where decisions become material, glass and machining instructions.

The installer should review the interface and setting-out information at this stage because the cheapest site problem is the one removed from the drawing.

Turn drawings into a production system

Panel schedules, component identities and revision control connect the approved drawing set to procurement and machining. The same references should appear on fabrication records, packaging and installation documents.

That chain prevents a late revision from becoming a mix of old and new parts inside the same container.

Make QA travel with the shipment

Remote projects need evidence that survives the distance between factory and site. Dimensional checks, material records, finish batches, glazing records and photographs should remain tied to identifiable panels or lots.

A clear dossier helps the client review progress before shipment and gives the site team a reference when questions arise during installation.

Pack in installation order

Crates and racks should follow the sequence the site intends to build: elevation, level and bay. Packing lists must use the same names as the panel schedule so the crew does not translate between three coding systems.

The load plan should also respect what must remain accessible first, which components are fragile and which small parts would stop an entire elevation if misplaced.

Write the site boundary before shipping

The contract must name who imports, stores, surveys, sets out, installs, seals interfaces, provides access equipment and signs local approvals. T1 supply, T2 supervision and T3 installation are different scopes, not informal variations of one promise.

A responsibility matrix protects both sides and makes site support faster because every question has an owner.

Start with the project criteria

North America is not one climate or code path. A coastal project, a cold continental city and a hot southern state place different demands on wind, rain, thermal movement, condensation and glass. The design-supply brief must begin with the project specification and local consultants, not a generic regional system.

Starveil's role is to translate those criteria into an engineered, fabricable package and make open assumptions visible early.

Thermal continuity and condensation

Frame thermal breaks, spandrel zones, slab edges, anchors and perimeter transitions all affect interior surface temperatures. In colder climates, a visually minor bridge can create condensation or comfort problems long before the centre of the glass becomes the issue.

The review should connect glass, aluminium, insulation and adjacent construction rather than treating the curtain wall as an isolated product.

Testing and evidence

Project specifications may reference ASTM laboratory tests, AAMA field procedures or other owner and consultant requirements. The useful evidence is evidence matched to the proposed configuration, spans and pressures — not a certificate selected because its title sounds relevant.

Any project-specific mock-up or field-testing scope should state who builds it, who witnesses it, what interfaces it contains and how corrective work is handled.

Local roles stay local

The architect, engineer of record, building-envelope consultant, contractor, installer and authority remain essential local participants. An overseas design-supply package does not replace local professional judgement or jurisdictional approval.

The responsibility matrix should state which calculations and drawings Starveil prepares, who reviews them locally and who owns installation, perimeter work and sign-off.

Plan logistics around installation

Container sequence, inland transport, storage, lifting, winter protection and crew access belong in the facade programme. A package that arrives before the structure or after the crane window can erase the benefit of factory prefabrication.

The delivery plan should be developed with the installer, then reflected in panel numbering, packing and the release schedule.