The newly completed 122
Waterloo Street development in the centre of Glasgow offers its occupants
floor-to-ceiling glazing throughout, with almost uninterrupted views thanks to
the latest Schüco curtain-walling system designed, manufactured and installed
by Edinburgh-based façade specialist Charles Henshaw & Sons Ltd.
But, impressively, the
landmark building – which will be the Glasgow headquarters of global financial
services firm Morgan Stanley – will also be one of the most energy efficient
buildings in Scotland, thanks in part to high-performance glass coatings from
Pilkington United Kingdom Limited.
The
scheme has been certified BREEAM Excellent, and achieved an ‘A’ rated Energy
Performance Certificate (EPC), the latter based on a detailed assessment of the building’s
energy performance. The glazing helps to minimise this by reducing energy
emitted from the building, as well as the heating effect of the sun, both of
which can make maintaining a comfortable interior climate more
energy-intensive.
The scale of the
building and the large area of glass used means that excessive radiation of
heat from the building could lead to rapid heat loss during colder conditions,
requiring an increase in heating to keep the interior warm.
To mitigate this
effect, the glazing features a Pilkington Optitherm S1 Plus low-emissivity
coating which reflects radiated heat back into the building.
The second issue that
can affect buildings where most of the envelope is glazed is excessive heat
build-up when the sun is shining directly into the interior. This can present a
challenge for building managers, often requiring high levels of energy-intensive
air conditioning.
To combat this, a
solar-control coating has been used, reducing the amount of heat energy that is
able to enter the building while maintaining high levels of transparency.
Michael Metcalfe,
commercial sales manager at Pilkington UK, said: “The Pilkington Suncool 70/35
T coating selected by the design team offers high visible light transmittance,
reduced solar transmittance and excellent low-emissivity all in one product.
“This means the floor
space will be brightly lit by sunlight but won’t suffer from overheating on
warmer days.”
The coatings are not
the only innovative part of the glazing used in the project, as the glass is
held in place by the latest structurally bonded curtain wall system from
manufacturer Schüco. Each unit contains a large pane of clear glass and a
smaller pane of opaque, coloured spandrel glass, creating horizontal lines
across the façade between each floor of the building.
Michael Metcalfe
continued: “The metal carrier frames in which the glass sits are extremely low
profile, so the edges of the panes of glass are very close to one another. This
removes the mullions normally associated with unit-based glazing systems, creating
a flush glass surface with almost uninterrupted views.”
The clarity of the
glazing was further improved by the use of Pilkington Optiwhite true low-iron
glazing throughout, which significantly reduces the slight green tint that is
inherent in standard float glass.
On the ground floor,
Pilkington Optilam laminated glazing was used to provide protection against
manual attack and increase the security of the building.
Completed
in December 2017, the nine-storey building also includes 155,000 sq ft of Grade
A office space.
