Term: Rainscreen
The outer layer of cladding of a rainscreen wall system. “Rainscreen walls consist of the outer layer of cladding (the rainscreen), an air cavity, and a drainage plane on a rigid, water-resistant, and airtight support wall.
Simple rainscreen walls, such as brick cavity walls and furred-out clapboard walls, rely on cladding to shed most of the rain while the air cavity serves as a drainage layer to remove any water that may penetrate the outer layer.”
Source: Building Construction Illustrated, p. 7.23, 4th Edition, Francis D.K. Ching