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Laminated glass is used for aesthetics, energy-efficiency, noise attenuation and structural strength at Aurora Place in Sydney

Beres Dowdle

From a Laminated Glass News interview with Beres Dowdle, Associate Director, Façade Engineering Group, Ove Arup, Sydney, Australia

Aurora Place, Sydney. Laminated glass is used for great aesthetics, energy-efficiency, noise attenuation and structural strength

"For Aurora Place and the Macquarie Apartments, Sydney we are working with Renzo Piano on a combined residential and office tower, to be completed in 2000. Renzo wanted the building to form a visual (form and color) dialogue with the Sydney Opera House, which is just two blocks away".

"Laminated glass really comes into its own in this relationship to get the aesthetics consistent. It is used for all of the Aurora Place facades, including glazed cantilevered projections from each elevation, varying from 1.4m to 5.0m, and a large sail on the roof where both faces of the glass are exposed to the elements. The glass laminate provides protection to the creamy white, ceramic frit on the inside of the glass, which matches the white and cream tiles of the Sydney Opera House beautifully. Color matching has been achieved by using a low iron glass".

"Lend Lease Developments, the owner, wanted the building to be energy-efficient. Through the use of laminated glass, we were able to incorporate a solar reflective coating within the laminated composition, enabling us to successfully achieve the required appearance without downgrading the required solar thermal performance".

"The lamination process gave us multiple surfaces to work with and meant that we could incorporate a number of devices – a ceramic frit, a moderately reflective glass and a low-E-coating – to achieve a shading co-efficient that was acceptable to the client".

"For the fins and the sails, which are structurally glazed to minimalist, aluminum frames on secondary steel supports and exposed to the elements on both sides, 18 mm thick laminated glass gave us the strength we required against wind pressures up to 5.6kPa. We were really pleased with the laminated glass solution from three points of view: aesthetics, energy-efficiency and structurally. The laminated glass 'skin' was also much more cost-effective for the client than an equivalent, triple-glazed solution would have been."

GREAT ACOUSTICS

"Another nice property of laminated glass is that you can delete various sound frequencies, depending on the varying thickness of the glass panes and the laminates. Aurora Place is located near a busy freeway and noise attenuation was definitely a further advantage gained from using laminated glass which allowed us to fulfill the architect's vision while meeting strength, safety, thermal and acoustic requirements."