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DuPont Benedictus Award® Special Recognition: Community

National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, Tokyo

Laminated glass was used in several areas of the museum, including the roof, cantilevered external glass wall, floor glass in the entrance and floor signs.

Tokyo's new National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (completed in March 2001) is located in the city's popular Odaiba bay side area.

Kiyoshi Sakurai, principal architect with city firm Nikken Sekkei Ltd. and architect in charge of this project, told LGN: "Our primary design goal was to communicate between people and science. We therefore proposed a glass façade that reflects environmental changes such as those of the seasons and the time of day, as well as shifts in the direction of the light and things going on inside the building. We designed a mass of exhibition spaces to fit inside the shape of an inverted glass cone where the flow of visitors is directed upwards and outwards. The use of curved laminated glass creates a gentle and transparent façade that acts as a soft, centrifugal force on the senses."

Laminated glass is key to the success of the project. The material is used for fins in the main curtain wall (laminated clear tempered glass, 12 + 12 mm); glass roofs (laminated clear tempered glass, 12 + 18 mm) with a solar collecting system; a cantilevered external glass wall (10 + 10 mm); a cantilevered glass wall for the balcony's handrail (18 + 18) and, dramatically, for floor glass in the entrance vestibule space (tapestried tempered glass 5 mm + 12 + 12), which includes floor signs.

Laminated glass brings light into the building, contributing greatly to energy efficiency.

Nikken Sekkei Project architect, Shigero Yoshino, told LGN: "Our goal was to create a three-dimensional, glass curtain wall with a minimum of visible fasteners to enhance the beauty of clear glass; indeed, no sashes are used. Curved surfaces were created using laminated glass by keeping the width of the glass plate minimal, and by restraining the difference in the slant of the glass facades as little as possible."

Instead of sashes, the architects incorporated laminated glass fins inside and outside the cantilevered façade, which provide the necessary reinforcement against the gale force winds and typhoons of this visually stunning, bay side location.

Yoshino San continued: "We selected laminated glass as an external cladding material because of its strength and excellent typhoon resistance, its transparency and the fact that it can be recycled. Laminated glass brings so much light into the building that there is no need for daytime light fixtures, contributing greatly to the energy efficiency of the Museum. To create a transparent building that is aesthetically based on the crystalline beauty of glass we needed the strength of laminated glass."

Due to the seaside location, the wind load is formidable, at 500 kg/m2 - comparable to the wind forces that skyscrapers must resist. Thus, laminated glass extensively for its strength and safety.

Yoshino San added that the glazing firm and laminated glass suppliers, Nippon Sheet Glass Co Ltd. and NSG D&G System Co. Ltd. of Tokyo, worked with the city's Nippon Steel Co. Ltd. steel mill to make the laminated façade eaves and fins by leveraging the mill's knowledge of ship-building; for example, 'welding' skills were employed that made the curtain wall "sharper and more functional," according to Yoshino San. Importantly, the structure also includes a bracing system for dampening the effects of horizontal movement in the case of earthquakes.

The 2002 DuPont Benedictus Awards judges said: "The museum's use of space and layout makes sense. The interior, central exhibition hall is flooded with natural light; it's a fine example of organization."