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Laminated glass keeps noise out of Alexandria Library reading room

Laminated glass is used on the roof panels of the reading room of the new library in Alexandria, Egypt to keep noise out of the building, while letting natural daylight in.

Alexandria's original library, conceived around 2,000 years ago, was the ancient world's centre of scholarship. The new library will become the most advanced in the Arab world. Its reading room has a laminated glass roof that lets daylight in and keeps noise out.

The roof of the library's reading room is 160 m in diameter, made up of 68 modules of 14.4 m x 9.6 m panels of laminated glass.

According to Craig/Dykers, Project Architect with Architects Snohetta of Norway: "The library is close to a very noisy, major thoroughfare and glazing in the roof panels reduces noise in the interior to 35dBA. Laminated glass is used both as a sun screen and a sound screen for the library."