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Laminated glass delivers the feeling of light and space for Melbourne shoppers, while reducing solar gain

The Glen's domed roof gives a Victorian feel and is made of heat-reflective, annealed laminated glass to ensure that the shopping mall is kept pleasantly cool – even on the hottest summer day.

When architects Hames Sharley set out to re-design 'The Glen' in Melbourne, Australia as a world class shopping center, they used laminated glass to achieve an attractive, stylized Victorian look that also includes all the functions of modern retail design, thanks to the widespread use of laminated glass – while fitting their new design neatly onto the existing structure of the previous shopping center.

The most striking addition to this new, 'shoppers paradise' is the atrium dome, an imposing glass structure which, together with the gabled roof gives the center its new, Victorian feel. The dome and roof, both of heat-reflective, annealed laminated glass, enhance the feeling of light and space in 'The Glen' while reducing solar gain – in other words the climate inside the shopping mall is kept pleasantly cool even on the hottest summer day.

SolarLAM^® helped engineers

Melbourne-based Meinhardt Façade Technology, international consulting façade and remedial engineers, designed the laminated glass construction for 'The Glen's' atrium dome and gabled roof with the help of DuPont SolarLAM^® software. This software enables engineers to estimate the solar and optical properties of laminated glass constructions from the performance parameters of their component glasses, glass coatings and DuPont^™ Butacite^® PVB interlayers.

Ignatius Calderone, Technical Director of Glass and Materials, at Façade Technology explained: "SolarLAM^® helped in the design of the atrium and roof because the architect wanted to achieve a certain color and shading coefficient. Using SolarLAM^® , we were able to try different combinations of glass and PVB interlayer that would meet the requirements before a final sample was manufactured for approval by the architect."

Mr. Calderone added that optimal design, including thermal risk assessment to ensure no glass breakage from thermal stress, combined with a rigorous quality control system prior to installation of the glass (especially in relation to the glass edges) enabled the use of annealed laminated glass for the atrium dome and roofing. Visible distortions, which are inherent in more costly, laminated heat-strengthened glass, were thereby avoided. "The cooperation between architect, design consultant, glass supplier and glass installer on 'The Glen' project typifies the modern approach to building design," said Mr. Calderone.

Laminated glass was used for the roof because, in Australia, building regulations require laminated glass for all sloped overhead glazing which is more than five meters above the floor level below.

The total area of 12.38mm thick laminated architectural glass used in the dome and gabled roofing is 1900m² (1350m² in the gable roof and 550m² in the dome). The construction of the laminated glass is 6mm reflective annealed outer glass (SL 20 coating on surface 2), 0.38mm green PVB interlayer and 6mm clear annealed inner glass.

Laminated glass used for all shopfronts

The architects ensured that laminated glass is also used throughout 'The Glen's' 200 stores to provide safety, security and noise dampening. Building regulations specify that safety glass be used in facades that could be mistaken for an open doorway. Laminated safety glass is generally used for shopfronts instead of toughened safety glass because, as laminated glass can be cut from stock size panels to fit the sizes required, the glass is more readily available for the installer, who generally requires quick glass supply.

Façade Technology's Ignatius Calderone concluded: "In façade designs in Australia and indeed throughout Asia, a wide range of local factors including climate, environmental problems, tropical rain and humidity – even cyclones and seismic activity – have to be considered in the engineering. As consulting façade and remedial engineers, we often rely on laminated glass to provide suitable solutions to these problems."