As one of the world’s most versatile building materials, with a wide range of esthetic options and outstanding energy characteristics, glass provides numerous opportunities to enhance buildings’ visual appeal and performance.
|
Daylight and view consistently rank high on a list of desirable attributes in homes, schools, and workplaces. Delivering them, however, can be challenging, as there are often competing interests.
|
Channel glass first made waves in the design community for its ability to capture and transfer large amounts of diffuse daylight deep into interior spaces without glare or excessive shadows.
|
A dramatic increase in the demand for and construction of tall buildings in Toronto has resulted in the city producing the highest per capita number of residential towers in North America.
|
The National Building Code of Canada (NBC) requires glazing in certain applications in educational facilities to be fire-rated. Today’s advanced fire-rated glazing products make it possible to do significantly more than protect against the spread of fire.
|
On a stormy spring evening in 2007, a marble panel fell from the 60th storey of Canada’s tallest building. Although no one was hurt, the event called into question the safety and durability of the building’s aging façade, made of 45,000 marble panels.
|
Conserving national history for future generations requires careful protection and maintenance. New construction in these spaces must be sympathetic to the existing landmark structures and settings, and public needs. Sensible construction allows these sites to be better appreciated, studied, and preserved.
|
For the past 100 years, developers and architects driven by the Modern movement have designed skeletal boxes skinned with glass for beauty and simplicity. Natural light, the diminishing of separation between interior and exterior, and open working environments were the result of these experimental glazing assemblies. This strategy continues to spread throughout the globe, in all climates.
|
Fire-rated glass products are specifically chosen to make buildings safer for occupants in life-safety situations, but these materials—whether windows, curtain walls, skylights, door lites, or floor assemblies—can also help make a space brighter, more inviting, and more energy-efficient.
|
Traditional wired glass, which for years was labelled as a ‘safety glass,’ is increasingly being recognized as not being safe when it comes to human impact—it has directly caused serious injuries, most often to school-aged children. In the United States, building code effectively banned wired glass in the 2006 International Building Code (IBC), but Canada has been slower to change its rules.
|
|
|
