Structural Glazing
Structural glazing systems can provide striking store front appearances, giving architects and designers the opportunity to offer unique uninterrupted glass structures without any visible framing, giving retailers maximum visual potential.
Frameless facades can be achieved by incorporating a combination of stainless steel fittings and structural glass support fins. These facades can be created using single toughened glass, toughened laminated or double glazed units
Structural glass systems can provide striking store front appearances, giving architects and designers the opportunity to offer unique uninterrupted glass structures without any visible framing, giving retailers maximum visual potential.
Frameless facades can be achieved by incorporating a combination of stainless steel fittings and structural glass support fins. These facades can be created using single toughened glass, toughened laminated or double glazed units.
Structural glazing systems, in their simplest form, are types of curtain wall systems consisting of glass that is bonded or anchored back to a structure without the use of continuously gasketed aluminum pressure plates or caps. The glass can be comprised of monolithic, laminated, dual-glazed or even triple-glazed insulating glass units (IGUs). The back-up structure may use horizontal and/or vertical aluminium mullions or be a glass mullion, steel blade, cable or stainless steel rod. The interior and exterior may use extruded silicone/EPDM gaskets, or a wet sealed silicone depending on the system. This system creates a completely clean, flush exterior appearance while the interior members have many different options depending on design and budget.
So why would you want to go with a structural glazing system? Structurally glazed systems create a greater transparency than traditional captured systems. There are less visual interruptions due to the lack of metal on the exterior (and potentially the interior), creating a seamless, continuous glass look. Traditional captured curtain wall systems have pressure plates and caps that can conduct large amounts of heat in or out of the façade depending on the season. Since there is little to no exposed exterior metal, there is also less thermal bridging with structural glazing, saving on energy consumption costs. Now, let’s take a look at some of the different types of structural glazing systems in the market today.
Cool Structural Glazed Buildings
Raddison Blu Hotel , Birmingham
Howells Patent Glazing have carried out works at the prestigious Millennium Point in Birmingham installing 5000 square metres of coloured U profiled glazing.