Glass in buildings

Delivering so much more than you think or even expect

Facades and windows are the most obvious and visible way of applying glass in buildings and houses. Today's glass products for commercial and residential buildings make us of highly developed technologies to offer you more than the simple window panes of the past. Not evident to you? Normal, all these technologies are invisible to the eye because we want you to continue enjoying an unaltered view when you see through our glass.

Light, comfort, well-being, style, safety and security, energy-efficiency and the respect for the environment thanks to a sustainable material are among the benefits of today's high-performing windows and glass building facades. The ability to control heat, light, and sound transmission to a high degree enables architects to design buildings that have a greatly reduced impact on the environment and dwellings that are quiet, comfortable and safe.

Different coatings technologies allow to enhance the energy performance of products. Glass used in today's windows and facades benefits you in many more ways than one may think of at first sight.

Glass used in today's windows and facades benefits you in many more ways than one may think of at first sight.

Glass floors

Glass can be used as a flooring material both in residential and commercial buildings. Glass floors but also staircases allow more light to flow inside buildings with unique indoor design effects. It is more and more used in tourist attractions to display archaeological sites or to enjoy vertiginous down views like in the Eiffel Tower, or in mountain tops like in the Italian Alps. However, many do not know that glass can also be used to build floors in indoor sports facilities. It is usually made of a toughened glass which is also laminated to ensure structural strength.

A window of benefits

Light, comfort, well-being and much more

Light, comfort, well-being, style, safety are just a few of the benefits that today's high-performing windows can deliver. The ability to control heat, light, and sound transmission to a high degree enables to design buildings that have a greatly reduced energy consumption but that are as well comfortable and safe for building occupants. As Europeans typically spend 90% of their time inside buildings, glazed areas in buildings distinctively contribute to our health and sensations of well-being by letting our body clock calibrates with daylight.

Glazed facades

Glass in architecture

Glass facades are mainly used for tertiary buildings (offices, shops, hospitals,…). They allow natural light into the building and connect occupants with the external world, while providing a very sophisticated look. The exposure to natural daylight and the opportunity of having an open view of the surrounding, have been demonstrated to be driving factors of productivity improvements in office buildings and faster recovery in hospital. These same unique properties of glazing are shown to significantly drive sales upwards in daylit shops.

Additional properties are also considered while developing a glazed façade like energy savings, safety, comfort, maintenance and structural strength. Behind the fully glazed facades of skyscrapers, one must appreciate building engineering skills that allow massive buildings to have such a light and aerial appearance.

Glass in greenhouses

A selective transmitter of solar energy

In agricultural greenhouses, glass is mainly used for both the roof and the walls. Glass in modern greenhouses functions as a selective transmitter of solar energy. High transparency and conductivity of heat and light are the most important characteristics of this type of glass. It allows to trap the energy into the greenhouse to warm plants, air, soil, water, etc. As infrared frequencies are blocked by glass, the thermal energy generated by plants is also conserved within the greenhouse, adding to the warming effect. For centuries, including in the most hostile climates for vegetation, glass has helped feed the planet.

Windows on the roof

Light and fresh air where standard vertical windows cannot be installed

Skylights improve access to natural light indoor, particularly in rooms in the middle of buildings, far from any vertical window. Skylights usually include products such as roof windows, unit skylights, tubular daylighting devices (TDDs), sloped glazing, and custom skylights. For all these applications, special glass treatments exist to reduce glare and overheating while ensuring sufficient strength to resist exceptional weather elements such as hail, snow load, etc..

Not only do skylights allow more light and ventilation indoor, they let you feel that only the sky is the limit to see and reach the stars!