How can a structural frame of glass be created with a minimum amount of material?Eckersley O'Callaghan asked itself this question when designing the pavilion which is now being shown at the exhibition of glass technology live. The project was developed in collaboration with several companies. AGC suggested the use of Falcon glass which is an alumino-silicate thin glass produced by the very high quality, cost-efficient float process. Such a thin glass was structurally enhanced by the lamination bending process to provide geometric stiffness by Tvitec Cricursa. The curved panels are then combined in pairs to form the individual structural units. These are then connected to create the frame’s structural units.
The initial frame geometry was based on hexagonal cells and was modified to the current form to reduce the panel count while maintaining the internal volume. Kuraray's SentryGlas® interlayer was chosen because of its class leading performance for shear stiffness at a wide temperature range. Bellapart provided its manufacturing expertise in precision steelwork, developing the jointing concept of Eckersley O'Callaghan into a simple curved plate form that elegantly brings visual legibility to the joints. The demonstrator was completed with Dow’s 993 structural silicone in grey to provide strength and stiffness to accommodate the manufacturing tolerance between the steel fixings and the glass surface.
The pavilion combines creative design with innovative technology and unconventional manufacturing processes. It is expected that that this will be rebuilt after the event in a permanent location.
