The St. Botolphs Hall Apartments in London were designed by Matthew Lloyd Architects and feature NBK Terracotta TERRART®-LARGE in special colors. For more information visithttp://tinyurl.com/3pl89m3
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All posts for the month February, 2012
The aim of this article is to explain the difference between two glass curving technologies: hot bending and cold bending.
Hot bending technology is based upon the following basic process [1]: a flat sheet of glass is placed upon a mould that has the desired bending radius and is heated evenly to temperature of 650ºC. At this temperature the glass changes to a visco-plastic state, loses its brittleness and stiffness, and can, therefore, be shaped by gravity or mechanical pressure, obtaining the aimed geometry by cooling.
Hot bending allows a broad variety of geometries and compositions -cylinders, s-curves, double curved shapes- to be achieved. The sheets are bent and then can be laminated and/or assembled into insulating glass units.
Manufacturers are steadily investigating, testing and, if the market demands it, expanding the manufacturing limits of radius, angle, thickness, girth and coatings, in order to offer architects and designers the largest sizes and greatest possibilities.
It is feasible in many cases to use coatings and ceramic frits in concave and convex sides, though the selection can be limited depending on varying factors such as glass thickness, size, radius, location adjacent to interlayers.
In order to attain a spherical, double curved and free form geometry with large deflections, curves with small radius such as 100 mm, processing with high temperatures is required.
Curved annealed laminated glass with a solar control and frit used on 40 Bond Street project, New York, 2006; Architect: Herzog & de Meuron (Produced by Cricursa, who have been bending glass since 1928)
Cold bending is a recent fabrication process. Flat glass panes are brought to the desired geometry by means of external contact pressure, which demands holding the curved glass unit in desired form.
Two basic techniques are used here: the glass can be curved at the construction site (and held in place by clamping strips) or curved in factory before laminating (and held in place by the interlayer).
The company seele sedak has been instrumental in the development of a new lamination bending technology [2], which consists on using shear stiff laminates, to produce extreme large bent glass panels.
The Lamination process of cold bent glass can be divided into four basic steps [2]:
1.- Put together interlayers and flat glass, usually tempered. The glass can also be heat strengthened, annealed, with ceramic frits or coatings though these may affect the limits of what is possible.
2.- The glass is formed into the desired shape by physically pressing it onto the laminating framework and clamped into place.
3.- Lamination process, the aim is to achieve a high shear bond between the glass and the interlayer.
4.- Release from the scaffold form. During and after the lamination process, high quality control and observance of the stresses in the single panes due to the spring back effect is necessary. It is required to increase the curvature in the panel during the lamination process to get the exact shape after releasing the laminated panel from the framework.
Both technologies provide fully bespoke, custom design solutions and the research and testing ensures the success of the most innovative designs.
Bridge made of cold-shaped glass and spanning seven metres (by seele sedak, Glasstec 2008)
[1] Cricursa General catalogue
[2] Bruno Kassnel-Henneberg, seele sedak. Purely structural glass building envelopes (Glass Performance Days 2011)
With editing by charles.bostick@seele.com
Source: renatocilento.blogspot.com
Repost from the GKD pressroom
Levolux, the market leader in Solar Shading, is the driving force behind sustainability at Volvo’s Maidstone dealership, Lipscomb Motors, with an innovative and sustainable timber Fin Solar Shading system. The architect, Bisset Adams, required a solution that fitted perfectly with the bold Scandinavian image it had developed for Volvo dealerships across the country. Levolux responded by designing and manufacturing a bespoke system using the African hardwood Idigbo, as specified by the architect on the basis of the material’s environmental credentials. To access this case study visit http://tinyurl.com/3c4uzny
Richard H. Talaske, Talaske|Sound Thinking, acoustical consultant on the project indicated “Jazz in New Orleans is a mix of acoustic and amplified music. At the new Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, the hall needed to accommodate both, with only limited adjustable acoustics capability. We felt that sound diffusing finishes on strategic surfaces was the right design approach. For our past projects, RPG’s undulating product designs offered effective diffusion with excellent timbre of sound. Hence, we specified RPG again for Ellis.”Repost from RPG Facebook page
When you have your own business, your boss is the most demanding one: The Market. Only if you offer competitive and innovative products, the market will award you. This is the case of Buryat ( htt://www.buryat.es ), a catalan company located in Barcelona, which is specialized in rockwool technical solutions for fire insulation integrated in curtain wall systems. They invest efforts to improve their products according to the observation market needs. They are putting some shine on two issues: minimize the number of pieces and reduce the assembly time.
All of their systems are tested in laboratory according to the European Standards.
The new version of Buryat EI120, as solution for 1 meter fringe between slab concrete and curtain wall, is formed by four elements:
? High density rockwool insulation panel of 50 mm thickness.
? Espiga ACR: anchorage between panels.
? Square profile: anchorage for horizontal panel on the lower slab side.
? Angled: anchorage for vertical panel internal aluminium frame.
The system is formed by a rockwool vertical panel inside the aluminium frame, afterwards two horizontal panel situated one on the top and one on the lower side slab. The lower panel is anchoraged to the slab through the square profile. The top panel is fixed between the concrete slab and vertical panel.
The rockwool panels are anchoraged to the concrete slab, in order to achieve the independence between fire insulation system and curtain wall.
Finally, in order to protect the vertical aluminium profiles of the lower part, a new rockwool panel is assemblied to the vertical one through the Espiga anchorage. In the upper part, the same rockwool panel is assemblied and anchoraged to the vertical panel through Espiga anchorage.
The free spaces between the rockwool panels and the slab concrete must be filled with intumescent sealants.
The isolant fire integrated in a curtain wall have been tested in laboratory and the result is 120 minuts of stability and integrity.
Source: renatocilento.blogspot.com
Repost from the GKD pressroom
Wax Museum San Francisco California
MBH Architectural (www.mbharch.com)
Allied Mechanical (www.alliedmech.com)
VMZ Standing seam panel
QUARTZ-ZINC
The aim of this post is to present one of the celebrities in the engineering and facade world. It is a introduction to those who are unaware of Peter Rice’s achievements.
This great engineer contributed in facades and structures with such a important innovations. He cooperated to design buildings, nowadays considered icons of structures and façades.
Currenlty the most of façades designed and built, in some way contain his essence.
He set up as Structural Engineer in Ove Arup firm from 1956 to 1977, afterwards he founded his own engineering firm, partnering with Martin Francis and Ian Ritchie.
The following points enhance some of the most important ideas of his philosophy and way of thinking:
-He believed the best buildings are the result of a symbiotic relationship between the architect and the engineer, where the engineer is the objective inventor and the architect the creative input.
-He was convinced that there was nothing mysterious about the process of innovation. He was never satisfied with mundane solutions. He took risks during the early stages of the design process.
– He combined advanced structural analysis techniques with investigations of materials in order to achieve the best structural systems.
– Peter confessed to learn just what he needed to know when he needed it.
According to Rice, the roles of the engineer are:
-To use the engineer’s understanding of materials and structure to make real the architectural designs.
-To innovate and to support the creativity of architects.
Among the most renowned construction he was involved in, we can mention the following:
-Sydney Opera House (1973, Jorn Utzon)
-Louvre Pyramid (Paris, 1988, Ming Pei)
-Lloyd’s of London (London, 1986, Richard Rogers)
-Stansted London Airport (1991)
-Cité des Sciences at La Villette (Paris,1987,Adrien Fainsilber)
The Centre Pompidou adopted the gerberette solution to achieve the long spans required to support a heavy library that could be moved anywhere in the building. One of Peter’s main contributions was his insistence on the use of cast steel for these pieces. The gerberette acted as a short beam propped on a circular column and tied down at the ened with a circular bar.
The curtain wall in the Cité des Sciences at La Villette has been the origin of the inexhaustible source of inspiration for the point-supported glass facades worlwide. The main innovations are:
-Drilled glass panels with countersunk holes for point fixings supports.
-Spherical bearings keeps all loads in the glass plane and eliminate local bending effects.
-Horizontal cable trusses resists out-of-plane wind forces.
In 1992 he was awarded the Royal Gold Metal for Architecture by the Royal Institute of British Architects for his achievements which let the advancement of architectures.
In 1994, the Harvard University established the Peter Rice Prize in recognition of the ideals and principles that he represented.
After his death, the engineering and architecture have lost one of their innovation engines.
It is advisable to read his two books: Structural Glass (Peter Rice, Hugh Dutton) and
An Engineer Imagines (Peter Rice).
Source: renatocilento.blogspot.com
Repost from the GKD pressroom
Structural glass symbolizes modern architecture and it is considered an added value to achieve all glass facade and non-metal supported transparent structures.
The prospect of shapping glass has contributed to attain a broad variety of aesthetical and structural options through oversized pieces of glass with complex geometries. Its versatility has allowed to achieve a better integration between the aesthetic and functional objectives.
The Casa da Musica in Porto (Rem Koolhas, 2004) is an example how to make the best of curved glass, because glass develops both functions: structure and enclosure. The glass shape increases the set stiffness and it is not necessary any metallic frame. Glass is anchoraged at the top and at the bottom part of its 6 meters length.
In glass bending technology, one distinguishes between hot-bending and cool-bending. Hot-bending consists on bending glass at high temperatures, being the most common manufacture method. On the other hand, cold
bending can be done in two modes: bending during the assembly at the construction site or laminated bendsare done in factory, both cases, the glass are brought to the desired shape by means of external contact pressure.
In order to achieve double-curved, spherical, curves with small radius and complex geometries, high temperatures are recquired during the manufacture process.
This post is under construction. In fact, it will be under construction during a long time. Creativity is the limit, because curved glass contributes with the facades of the future.
Source: renatocilento.blogspot.com
Repost from the GKD pressroom
“We know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use” Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, recently said this sentence during the speech regarding the new Apple Headquarters in Cupertino (California, USA).
Facade units get bigger and bigger every year. Some colleagues engineers have thought that cladding world has gone mad, but it is not true. Innovations are moving ahead. The market demands it.
Architecture is demanding larger pieces, such as Apple Store in Shanghai, where the height of every glass facade is approximately 12 meters.
The main benefits (among others) can be noticed immediately:
-Reduction of glass joints, improving watertightness and increasing light transmission.
-Reduction of supporting claddings.
-Improved load carriage behaviour.
Certainly, Apple has innovated using largest glass panes in their own worldwide stores.
Apple Store in Sydney, glass panes height goes from the floor to the facade hill
Recently, it has been published that Apple is going to renovate the Cube store on Fifth Avenue in New York, removing the 90 glass panes by using just 15 larger ones.
Apple has revealed its plans for the cube with a new informational sign posted on the barrier surrounding the plaza
Another clue concerning this architectural trend was found in the last Glasstech Düsseldorf in October 2010, you could see a huge insulated glass panel of 18 meters x 3,3 meters, manufactured by Henze-Glas from Hörden, Germany.
Henze-Glas DGU in the factory, before shipping to Glasstec 2010. Employers are sitting on top of the 18m long glass unit.
Source: renatocilento.blogspot.com
repost from www.renatocilento.com
Have you ever thought of using a perforation to create a pattern or image? Check out the following projects that have used perforated Topakustik wall and ceilings panels to create and image or pattern. For more information visit http://tinyurl.com/2dekw3r