ᐅ Ventilated Facade: Advantages and Disadvantages? Pest Issues?

We are currently searching for a provider for a single-family house and will decide on one in the next few weeks after receiving the remaining offers.
We have a favorite who is the only timber construction company offering a ventilated cladding system, either wood or plastered. We would choose plaster, but of course, we wondered why they are the only ones using this wall construction. The rest of the wall is similar to others, with gypsum board, wood panel, timber frame with insulation, wood fiberboard – only then with battens and cladding instead of plaster on the wood fiberboard.

What are the advantages or disadvantages of this type of facade, if any, aside from the design flexibility and better recyclability, especially regarding insulation, soundproofing, heat protection, and vapor permeability?

Another question we have is whether such facades cause problems with pests or even small mammals potentially nesting in the ventilation gap, or worse, burrowing into the (effectively “exposed”) insulation and making themselves comfortable there?

HansDampf1311 schrieb:

What are the advantages and disadvantages of this type of facade, if any, aside from design flexibility and easier dismantling, especially regarding insulation, soundproofing, heat protection, and vapor permeability?

There aren’t any. However, it is expensive and therefore rarely chosen.

As @nordanney wrote, forget about “breathing walls”—they do not exist.
Ventilated façades are the ideal solution but also considerably more expensive.
The openings are usually covered with insect screens.
The façade can also be additionally insulated.
For cost reasons, this construction method is rarely used for single-family houses.

We have a ventilated larch wood facade. At first, there was a mouse inside. We caught the mouse, sealed the area, and have had no issues for 18 months now.

With the ventilated curtain wall façade, the actual exterior wall is not directly exposed to the weather. At least, that is my hope. A supplier we contacted offered both options. The ventilated façade was noticeably more expensive, but I no longer remember the exact difference.

It’s also a matter of aesthetics, at least in our case. The larch wood lasts untreated "forever" and develops a silvery-gray color, which you can already get an idea of here.