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Our buildings provide shelter by protecting us from the harsh outdoor elements like wind, rain, snow and the heat of the sun. The layers of a building that separate the outside environment from the comfortable, conditioned inside spaces make up something called the 'building envelope'.

The green line in the diagram above shows a continuous layer that separates inside from out - this is the building envelope. The built components that make up this layer include:

• the STRUCTURE of the building;
• the CONTROL LAYERS - insulation, air barriers, vapour retarders, etc..
  • NOTE: the term "barriers" refers to the individual materials within the control layers;
    
• the interior and exterior FINISH LAYERS.