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Jakarta's new Jamsostek Twin Towers use 40,000m² of reflective laminated glass in curtainwall

Jakarta's new Jamsostek Twin Towers

Jakarta's new Jamsostek Twin Towers, which opened on 23 December 1997, is a 25-story, commercial office building owned by the Indonesian Employees Social Security System. The building uses around 40,000m² of reflective laminated glass with DuPont^™ Butacite^® PVB in its curtainwall, bringing aesthetic, safety, solar gain reduction, UV-control and sound-control benefits.

Raymond Hsu of RHA Architects of Singapore explained: "This was the first major property development for the owner and the Jakarta office market has become very competitive. It was therefore of the utmost importance that the project could attract blue-chip, international tenants for its 86,000m² of office space. We were asked to use high quality, value-for-money materials throughout since the client wanted a first-class international building standard. The building needed excellent aesthetics and was to be as long-lasting and maintenance-free as possible".

The Jamsostek project was designed to first-class building standards in order to attract international, blue chip tenants.

Mr. Hsu continued: "Laminated glass was therefore the obvious choice for the building's curtainwall. There were many reasons for this. First, we had selected to make the floor-to-ceiling windows 3.3m high, which is higher than the norm in Jakarta, in order to give the occupants really great, panoramic views of the city. Laminated reflective glass was essential for safety and to reduce glare. Second, we used laminated glass to protect the glass construction's inner reflective coating by placing it inside the laminate, rather than exposing it to potential damage from the outside world". "Temperatures in Jakarta remain at a constant 31-33 degrees C for 250 days per year. In addition to air conditioning being costly, Jakarta is subject to frequent power shortages which make this method of controlling the internal ambient temperature unreliable. So the reflective laminated glass curtainwall and the solar gain this brings are vital for the comfort of those working inside the building – and also result in significant energy cost savings. In addition, laminated glass screens out almost all solar UV, protecting furnishings and fabrics".

"Next, a laminated glass curtainwall system was essential for soundproofing; as anyone who has been to Jakarta knows, it's a very noisy city. The laminated glass solution not only provides better soundproofing than standard double-glazing but better value-for-money, too!"

The project was engineered by Ove Arup Façade Engineering of Sydney, Australia. The laminated glass was supplied by P. T. Tamindo Permaiglass of Jakarta. General Manager, Mr Indrajit, said: "We used two layers of annealed glass with a total 10.38mm thickness including 0.38mm of Butacite^® PVB and a coating of St. Gobain Coolite, imported from the Benelux, on the inside to minimize solar gain."

As Raymond Hsu summed up: "The excellent, distortion-free aesthetics of the laminated glass curtain wall are enhanced by polished stainless steel mullions, making the entire façade of the Jamsostek Twin Towers sparkle in the Indonesian sun."