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Sydney Showground's main Exhibition Hall incorporates more than 5,000 m² of laminated glass

Part of a Laminated Glass News series on Sports and Leisure facilities

The Sydney Showground main exhibition hall (interior)

Sydney Showground: light and safe

The Sydney Showground's main Exhibition Hall will host the Olympic basketball and boxing tournaments, among other activities. It incorporates more than 5,000 m² of laminated glass (supplied by G. James Glass) aimed at getting natural daylighting into the building – safely.

Associate at architect, Ancher, Mortlock, Wooley, Gary Wallace, told LGN: "Laminated glass is used for a 215 meter-long, continuous strip glazing unit, starting 10m above floor level. It's also used for the building's atrium, for glazed louvers at the pinnacle of the timbered roof and for the bay windows in the main hall. There are a multitude of other laminated glass applications within the larger, Showground complex too – from office partitions to shop fronts."

"This building hosts a huge number of events in its 50-year life before and after the Olympics – from motor shows to rock concerts. The one thing all these events have in common is that they will be hosting hundreds of thousands of people. While natural daylighting was a design objective, the building regulations require the best safety glazing materials."

The Exhibition Hall, with its timber-supported dome, has won a multitude of design prizes. Wallace added that laminated glass limits UV penetration and therefore slows the timber from going grey – another reason for his firm's choice of the material.