Glass as a Versatile Information Medium

In the Dornier Museum Friedrichshafen, innovative glass products are setting the scene for aeronautical history.

The new Dornier Museum at Friedrichshafen Airport is making the history of the development of aircraft company Dornier come alive, up close and personal. On the 5,000 square metre exhibition space, about 400 exhibits are on display. Extraordinary presentation formats make the museum into an interactive world of experience. A significant proportion of the impressive presentation is made up by innovative glass products from Glas Trösch.

Informative Accessible Glass Floor
One highlight of the exhibition concept, which was designed by general planner Alfred Brückner, is an accessible, 80 square metre glass floor, half of which is used to display a world map. The floor map shows how aviation pioneer Dornier conquered the international airspace in the 1920s and 1930s. “The demands on the floor structure were particularly demanding,” explains architect Daniela Buck, who was the Glas Trösch consultant responsible for the implementation of the design. “As well as the necessary stability and anti-slip surface, precise printability in connection with a 3D effect was required.”

This task was tackled by Atelier Brückner and Glas Trösch through the threefold glass structure with laminated safety glass (LSG), which creates a depth effect thus enabling the desired three-dimensionality. The individual layers of the laminate were used to display different pieces of information. The lowest pane forms the basis for the elements of the world map and the middle layer acts as a carrier for the graphic aircraft models and air routes. Through the interaction of the layers, an overall picture arises with a three-dimensional effect. For the bottom and middle layer (each 10 mm) of the glass floor, Trösch product Eurowhite was used. Before the laminating process, the glass was refined using the Lamex Colorprint digital printing procedure with the predefined motifs. In total, 24 LSG elements with a dimension of 1.75 x 0.95 metres form the world map. They were installed on an IPE 160 double-T girder.