Tag Archives: Glazing

Glass and the 2030 Challenge: Exploring experimental glazing strategies

For the past 100 years, developers and architects driven by the Modern movement have designed skeletal boxes skinned with glass for beauty and simplicity. Natural light, the diminishing of separation between interior and exterior, and open working environments were the result of these experimental glazing assemblies. This strategy continues to spread throughout the globe, in all climates.

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Glazing technology promises greater architectural freedom

One of the strategies employed by architects to increase (or regain lost) glazing area to meet the performance objectives of building energy codes and standards involves using established building envelope elements such as window louvres, fins, and shelves, along with emerging technologies such as vacuum-insulated glazing and panels (VIGs) and electrochromic (EC) glass.

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Cutting through the smoke

For decades, the words ‘design flexibility’ and ‘fire-rated glass’ would not have appeared in the same sentence. Traditional polished wired glass was the only glazing material permitted in fire-rated areas. Its network of wires holds together broken glass during a fire to slow the spread of flames and smoke longer than was previously possible with other available glazing products.

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Advancing energy-efficient timber façades

The building industry consumes 40 per cent of the world’s energy, and is responsible for more than 38 per cent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to studies completed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD 2009). The energy demand and its costs will continue to increase; this explains why Canadian building code requirements are becoming more stringent.

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Glazing performance and sustainable design

Glazing is an integral part of modern design. From a thermal standpoint, glazing and its structure or frame is the weakest point of a wall assembly.1 A double-glazed vinyl window with argon’s U-factor (i.e. thermal transmittance) is typically around 3 W/(m2 K). This means the window will gain or lose around 3 W per m2 per degree Celsius. An efficient fibreglass window system’s U-factor can be as low as 1 W/(m2 K). An aluminum curtain wall system can range as high as 4 W/(m2 K). On the other hand, the U-factor of a 152-mm (6-in.) steel stud, with batt and exterior continuous insulation, can be around 0.4 W/(m2 K).

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The evolution of glazing in Vancouver

When looking at its skyline, it is no wonder why Vancouver is known as the “City of Glass.” Glass high-rise buildings, each one taller than the next, have been the architectural vision developed over many years (Figure 1). In fact, the relationship between West Coast architecture and glazing systems is symbiotic; their evolution would not have been possible without one another.

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