Guardian Oversize Glass Expands Your Options for Dramatic Design

Façades with large expanses of glass and oversize windows are beautiful, but they come with a variety of challenges. They let light and views in, creating healthier interiors, but they can also let in the sun’s summer heat, and let out valuable warmth in the winter. Historically, it has been hard for designers to balance these issues, but thanks to new high-performance, low-E coatings like those in Guardian Glass’ SunGuard® coated glass portfolio, architects can have beautiful glass openings without sacrificing building efficiency.

Guardian Glass combines its SunGuard® coated glass technology with its jumbo glass capability to offer state-of-the-art glazing options. Architects like the late Dame Zaha Hadid have used oversize Guardian SunGuard coated glass to create gleaming glass façades with expansive views and seamless connections between indoor and outdoor spaces.

The interior of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University designed by Zaha Hadid; photo by Jason Meyers courtesy Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum

Guardian jumbo glass can exceed 130 inches by 204 inches. When specifying large-format glass, consider a wide range of features that are more significant at this scale. The framing system, primary and secondary seal depth, thermal stresses, optical requirements, and jobsite handling and installation should all be examined to make sure that they work with the large-format product. Guardian Glass recommends heat-treated glass for large units to improve resistance to wind loads and thicker glass to accommodate the center of glass deflection and prevent edge pullout. 

Guardian Glass has manufactured jumbo coated glass with high-performance, low-E SunGuard® coatings in Europe and will be bringing that capability to the United States in 2018 via a new facility in Michigan.

The National Arts Centre Ottawa; photo by Lisa Logan

The new plant means that large-format glass manufactured in the United States can be coated immediately upon production. Therefore, it will be easier to source oversize Guardian SunGuard® coated glass products in the United States. Although American projects like the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University designed by Zaha Hadid use  jumbo-sized coated Guardian glass, these products had to be delivered from Europe. The new facility means the glass will be available with significantly reduced lead times. And such state-of-the-art aesthetics will now be available to a broader set of U.S.-based designers.

The entry of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University designed by Zaha Hadid; photo courtesy Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum

The Zaha Hadid-designed Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum features Guardian SunGuard® High Selective SuperNeutral® 70 41 coating on low-iron glass in oversize lites. There are four glass lites, with two argon-filled spaces and a warm-edge spacer system. The SunGuard® low-E glass coating allows natural light to penetrate while reducing solar heat gain and improving thermal performance. A silkscreen dot pattern on the glass helps minimize glare and improves the visitor experience.

The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum is just one example of many illustrating how architects look to oversize glass to complete their design vision.

“Architects are increasingly designing projects with larger glass sizes to deliver desired aesthetics with more expansive views and higher daylight penetration,” explained Rick Zoulek,  Vice President – Americas, Guardian Glass. “Guardian Glass’ new jumbo coater will combine the larger size glass that architects demand with the world-class energy savings of the Guardian SunGuard® portfolio of high performance, low-E coatings.”

The SunGuard® coated glass product line from Guardian Glass offers excellent solar control and a wide variety of colors and performance levels. SunGuard glass products provide innovative, leading solutions for appearance, economics and energy efficiency, and are available through an international network of independent Guardian Select® fabricators. For more information about SunGuard, visit guardianglass.com. For more information about Guardian Glass’ jumbo capability, visit guardianjumboglass.com.

Feature image: Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University designed by Zaha Hadid; photo courtesy Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum

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