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Sydney Showground pavilions use laminated glass for added transparency and daylighting with maximum safety

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

Olympic architects praise design freedom of laminated glass: Brett Woods, Commercial Marketing Manager of Pilkington (Australia) Ltd., estimates that his firm has supplied up to 50,000 m² of laminated glass for the Sydney Olympics.

Three of the Sydney Showground's six pavilions contain up to 3,000 m² of laminated glass – frequently used in floor-to-ceiling glazing for added transparency and daylighting with maximum safety. Laminated glass is also used in the pavilions' foyers and in the circulation spaces around the sports fields, within.

A laminated glass roof on the velodrome which will host the Olympic cycling events brings full natural daylighting, and prevents glare and solar heat gain.

Woods told LGN: "The various architects and contractors we worked with elected pretty unanimously to use laminated glass. The Olympic buildings that work best are the ones that provide the most transparency between the interior and the exterior – those that 'open up' the proceedings better. The security that laminated glass brings was undoubtedly a factor too, in view of the security problems experienced in the 1996 Atlanta Games."

"The price premium for using laminated glass, rather than annealed glass, is small. Most architects we have worked with believe the premium to be well worth the design freedom (for daylighting, energy efficiency, solar control and other benefits) that laminated glass brings to their projects."