House facade design in Batumi: materials, colour, lighting

What facade design decides

Facade design for a house in Batumi starts where the architect has finished with the massing and the openings. We decide what each wall will be made of, where the joints between materials fall, what colour the window frames, railings and gutters will be, and how the plinth, the eaves and the entrance look. On the elevations we draw from the start the things that usually spoil a finished house: downpipes, outdoor air conditioning units, vent grilles, meters and cable trunking.

We work both with new houses at the design stage and with existing ones that need a new look. In the second case the choice depends on the wall: aerated concrete, old masonry and concrete need different systems and different fixings. We have compared the systems themselves on the page about ventilated facades and ETICS, and if an old house needs more than work on its walls, it is better to start with a full renovation.

Materials for a house by the sea

Near the shore a facade has to cope with salt, wind-driven rain and strong sun all at once. For ETICS, where the insulation is finished with render, we use mineral or silicone render: silicone absorbs almost no water and still lets vapour out of the wall. Acrylic paints are cheaper but let vapour through less well, and we don't use them on aerated concrete.

We choose the cladding for a ventilated facade by how much maintenance you are prepared to give it. Porcelain tiles and fibre cement need almost no attention. Aluminium composite panels keep their shape and colour, but a dent in them shows at once. By the sea wood quickly turns grey and needs treating every year or two, so on the beachfront we use it only under a deep roof overhang or replace it with wood-effect panels.

Metal on the facade, from sill flashings to canopies, is powder-coated aluminium or stainless steel; by the sea we don't use galvanised steel for decorative parts. We draw the plinth, eaves and reveal details on separate sheets: these are exactly the places where water finds its way in if the joint was worked out on site.

Facades in the mountains of Adjara

We take on houses in the mountains by separate arrangement, and the facade has different jobs to do there. There is no salt, but there are frost, snow and thaws: water in the pores of tiles or stone freezes in winter and spalls the face. So we use frost-resistant cladding with low water absorption, and draw the joints and junctions so that water runs off them.

Together with the architect, we make the roof overhang deeper in the mountains than by the sea: it keeps snow and rain away from the walls and windows. On the roof above the entrance and the terrace we fit snow guards, so that snow doesn't slide down onto the path. In mountain villages a stone lower storey with timber above is traditional, and we often keep this arrangement: the stone takes the snow and splashes, and timber under a wide overhang lasts a long time.

Facade colour: sun, shade and test patches

Under the Batumi sun a colour on the wall looks lighter and paler than the sample in your hand. So we finish choosing with test patches of about a metre by a metre on two walls, one in the sun and one in the shade, and look at them in the morning and in the evening. On a house under construction we paint the patches as soon as the render is ready, and don't order paint for the whole facade before then. If you are not in Batumi, we film the patches in daylight next to samples of the frames and cladding.

Dark walls facing south and west get very hot in summer. For ETICS over insulation, system manufacturers restrict very dark colours, because an overheated coat cracks, so we keep deep dark tones for a ventilated facade or for details. Bright organic pigments fade under UV light, so for saturated shades we use paint with mineral pigments.

A house usually needs two or three colours: the walls, the frames and the metalwork, sometimes with an accent by the entrance. We record the catalogue colour codes in the schedule, so that the frames, railings and gutters are ordered in the same shade.

Windows, railings and fencing

The positions of the windows are set by the architect, and facade design decides how they look: the colour and width of the frames, the depth of the reveals, sill flashings, shutters or external blinds. We recess the roller shutter box into the wall in advance, before the insulation goes on, otherwise it ends up surface-mounted. Which profile to use in the bedrooms and which for panoramic glazing is covered in the comparison of aluminium and uPVC windows.

By the sea we make balcony and terrace railings of glass on stainless steel or of powder-coated aluminium. The balusters are vertical, with no horizontal rails a child could put a foot on. Canopies, pergolas and furniture for the outdoor areas are worked out in the terrace design project, and on the facade we leave fixing points for them.

We draw the fence and gates together with the house, in the same colours. A solid fence in the wind off the sea acts like a sail and needs heavy posts, while a slatted fence with gaps lets the wind through. The height and openness of a boundary fence are best discussed with the neighbours before ordering.

Facade lighting

Light on a facade does two jobs: it gets you safely from the gate to the door and shows off the house in the evening. For the first, fittings by the entrance, above the steps and by the house number are enough; the second is done by a few accents on walls, columns or trees. We use warm light, around 3000 K, and place the fittings so that you see the light on the wall rather than the lamp itself: a bright point by the door dazzles both the guest and the entrance camera.

By the sea we choose fittings with housings of powder-coated aluminium or stainless steel, rated at least IP65. We mark the outlet positions on the elevations, and the electrician puts them in before rendering. Light grazing along a wall picks out every ripple in the render and every uneven cladding joint, so walls under accent lighting get a smoother finish than the rest, and we check them with a lamp before painting. Path and garden lighting continues in the landscape design project, so we choose the colour temperature and brightness for both at once.

Approvals and estate rules

In Batumi the permit for a private house is usually issued by City Hall, outside the city by the local municipality, and the facades are part of the design on which the permit is issued. So we draw a new facade within the limits of that design, and if you want to change the look of an existing house noticeably, we first check with the architect and our partner lawyer which documents will be needed. They also check whether the house is listed as a cultural heritage monument or stands in a heritage protection zone: in that case facade work has its own approval procedure.

Estates with a management company sometimes have their own facade requirements: the colour of walls and frames, the type of fence, the places for outdoor units. We ask for these rules before the concept, so as not to draw options that won't be allowed later. If a wall is shared with a neighbour, as in a townhouse, we discuss its look with them too.

How much house facade design costs in Batumi

Facade design for a private house costs from 3,900 to 6,000 ₾ per project. The price includes the concept, 3–4 3D views, elevations of all facades, colours and the cladding schedule. An extra view, such as an evening view with the lighting on or a view from the road, is priced separately, from 690 ₾ per view. We build facade views the same way as interior 3D renders: with the materials and colours from the schedule.

This is the price of the designer's work; the facade work itself is priced in an estimate. As a guide, turnkey ETICS with materials costs from 205 ₾ per m², and a ventilated facade with porcelain tiles or composite panels from 420 ₾ per m². The project price goes up with a complex house shape, a ventilated facade panel layout for every wall, and a fence and gates in the same project; it goes down with a simple volume and ready architect's drawings. The final cost is set after a measured survey of the facades or a check of the architect's drawings, once the project scope has been agreed with you.