Concept to customisation storyboards
Aliva UK are facade artisans. We can take your architectural vision and work by your side to create a totally customised facade solution that recognises the scale and substance of your vision – bringing your design intent to life to your budget.
We are not just a material supplier. Our facade systems are designed with Italian flair and the spirit and skill of seven decades of master craftsmanship that underlines our proposition in bespoke facade ideation and creation.
We can work outside the box, challenging traditional thinking and solutions, working with our artisanal skill-set and shoulder-to-shoulder with you and your architectural practice to ideate, create, test, finesse and customise your facade solution. We can create tailor-made systems with pure passion to realise your architectural dream without compromising on your design, working bespoke but to your budget requirements.
See some of our behind the scenes storyboards on our concept to realisation journeys here:
Elm House, Brighton
Aliva UK custom designed and manufactured this first-of-a-kind terracotta facade solution for Brighton University’s School of Business and Law.
The facade responds to the architectural design intent, a system that evokes the murmurations of starlings seen over the iconic Brighton Pier. The design solution involved a 3D custom ceramic veil frame and a total of 50,000 geometric glazed clay tiles in a range of matt, gloss and semi-gloss finishes. As a never-been-done-before facade, an entirely new production method had to be defined for the tiles and their various dimensional forms, especially the open areas that gave the sense of ‘flight’ in the design intent.
Once the tiles were removed from their moulds, a key challenge navigated involved drying and temperature control, given the production period spanned c. six months and had to accommodate seasonal changes. Different glaze mixes were then trialled to establish the right blend to give the varying reflective degrees to achieve the matt, gloss and semi-gloss finish that was key to the dimensionality and sense of movement in the design intent.
Prada, Las Vegas
This bold, black signature facade was designed for the Italian fashion house Prada, now a global luxury brand and a name defined by precision, craft and constant reinvention.
Aliva developed a bespoke cast aluminium cladding system, featuring slightly rhomboid background panels with numerous uniformly distributed conical light openings. This is not just surface decoration, it is texture, shadow play, and brand expression, all engineered into the building envelope, all of this combined with factory assembled modules to facilitate a reduced installation time.
Every element speaks to Prada’s heritage of uncompromising quality and innovation. For Aliva, this was about elevating brand identity into the architectural skin, a facade that feels as tailored as the products inside the store.
It demonstrates the art-of-the-possible when cladding becomes couture, with Aliva involved through the design, development and engineering journey.
Flagship luxury brand store, Toronto
Our customised Terratoscana.covering in a bespoke, bold crimson colourway is a complement for a luxury fashion brand’s boutique in Toronto, home to men’s and women’s collections in this exclusive city-centre location.
Our intricate terracotta facade in the global brand’s lead colourway features a double fired glazed finish and demonstrates how architecture can fold in, to form an extension of a luxury retailer’s visual identity. This unique project demanded more than technical delivery, it required elegance, uniqueness and speed due to a fast track programme requirement. Aliva created the concept and tile iterations to deliver a bespoke, artisanal terracotta facade that was tailor-made to meet the brand’s ambitions and aligned to tight delivery timelines.
Harvard Enterprise Research Campus, Massachusetts
This prestigious Ivy League university campus in Boston’s Allston neighbourhood blends life sciences, retail and public space into a lively urban location.
Our customised Alu.covering® system in two contrasting tones of rich and luscious green glaze feature on two neighbouring buildings in the campus, a mid and a high-rise. Our Onda Lunga Alu.covering® with a concave profile creates a sense of flow, rhythm and unique identity for the two elevations.
This facade was uniquely designed to have all the look and feel of a terracotta system but our customised Alu.covering® is a lighter weight solution for the height of the two elevations and more cost effective for the project’s supply, installation and build programmes.
San Marino Outlet Experience, San Marino
This statement bespoke facade blend visually responds and reflects the pivotal site context for this flagship retail outlet in the heart of the Republic of San Marino, Italy, and the UNESCO-listed hillside of Mount Titano.
Concept sketches reflected this geographical heritage and local architectural tradition with diagonally winding terraces and four civic plazas.
We worked from the very first sketch to interpret local stone and metal palettes and tested how these could inform system types, perforations and panel rhythms.
The outcome is a facade blend that feels rooted in respect for Mount Titano and a medieval past, with a contemporary architectural concept of ‘village’ for the new outlet with a sense of stylish vibrancy.
The project features 11 different types of walls and cladding, with stone and metal facades that are fully integrated into the landscape, thanks to the sympathetic choice of materials and colours, featuring multiple holes, reliefs and patterns to create movement and lightness.
Teatro alla Scala Opera House, Milan
Our brief was the creation of a bespoke facade on an extension to the Teatro alla Scala opera house by Swiss architect Mario Botta.
An iconic neoclassical theatre, it was inaugurated in 1778, and is regarded today as one of the leading opera and ballet theatres globally.
The project began with deep respect for the architectural masterpiece by Piermarini. Botta’s 2004 extension adds a refined elliptical volume and stage tower, both clad in Botticino marble, the same stone that connects with the theatre’s original facade.
The challenge was to honour the venue’s heritage, while also giving it new life. Early sketches and concept models set the tone, bridging the past and present with a ventilated marble facade on the tower including Botticino sun-shade panels.
Aliva also developed a custom Ali‑Stone substructure, aluminium alloy supports capable of adjusting marble slabs on three axes and carrying their considerable weight. To manage site restrictions in central Milan and protect historic surroundings, large panels were pre‑assembled at ground level, enabling tight quality control and smooth installation on site.
