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Phoenix Courthouse wins National Design Award, using SentryGlas^® Plus as a huge light lens

Leveraging the feelgood factor: A better living and working environment with laminated glass

Daylighting: 'Gathering and redeeming the light'

Lens ceiling for Phoenix Courthouse

James Carpenter of James Carpenter Design Associates: "There will always be limits that are imposed on the architect's imagination by the glass manufacturing industry. So the opportunities to customize the skin of buildings is left to creative laminators and glass laminating product suppliers like DuPont – whether the skin is tailored for 'intelligence', aesthetics or daylighting purposes".

"For the Phoenix Courthouse, which won the National Design Award for 1999, we selected DuPont^™ SentryGlas^® Plus ionoplast interlayer for the roof. Light is projected against it and it acts as a huge lens covering almost the whole size of the building. So laminated glass is used here both for structural and for lighting purposes; it gathers and redeems daylight and redistributes it throughout the building."

"A humanistic need"

Lord Foster of Thames Bank says that his well-known support of 'green buildings' that use natural light and renewable energy resources is inspired by what he calls a profound concern for human spirituality: I see myself as interpreting needs," says Foster, "but one need is humanism. Letting sunlight come into an airport is not mechanistic; it's humanistic."