In the FiReGlass project, you are developing load-bearing beams made of laminated safety glass with defined fire protection properties. How do you achieve the increased fire protection?
When glass is exposed to a fire load, it quickly becomes hot and therefore highly deformable. The films in laminated safety glass, which are used for such substrates, melt relatively quickly, losing their function as a result. We prevent this by wrapping the glass support with a fire protection gel and another pane of glass. We have also developed a new type of edge protection and a special support structure as part of the project. These three innovations ensure that the core of the glass support heats up significantly less and therefore remains stable for a longer time than a reference construction without the protective cover. We will be exhibiting both glass beams together at glass technology live.
Beams made of laminated safety glass have also existed in the past. How has fire protection been solved for them to date?
Essentially by organisational means, for example by ensuring that escape routes are not located next to such structures. However, this in turn restricts the freedom of design in architecture. We still have an enormous need for research into load-bearing glass. Compared to steel or timber, for example, we lack the knowledge of how to prove the fire protection of load-bearing glass constructions without extensive testing. Our new glass support could be a means of achieving more design freedom while still maintaining at least the same level of safety as before.
You have been working intensively on the topic of thin glass at the institute for years. Where does the material come from and what is its potential for architecture?
We all come into contact with thin glass every day – for example on the displays of our mobile phones. Thin glass has the advantage that it is easy to mould and weighs very little. The challenge now is to move from the small scale of a display to the scale of a building.
How do you go about it?
One example is our L3ICHTGLAS research project. Here, we use a 3D printer to produce a ribbed structure made of semi-transparent polymer, for example, which is embedded between two thin glass panes. The glass protects the polymer, which gives the glass panes the necessary stability. So far, we have been able to use this process to produce composite elements that are not quite room-high. This is already very promising for interior applications. The next step is to transfer this to the building envelope. Here we must deal with thermal and sound insulation as well as fall protection, among other things.
The polymer core not only has a static function but is also a design element.
Yes, of course. The advantage of additive manufacturing is that we can use it to produce highly customised geometries according to the design-to-production principle. This means that the elements influence the aesthetics of façades and rooms – and they can be precisely customised to the respective location in the building in terms of light control and shadow effect. Building façades usually consist of many glass panes of the same or similar size. We now combine this uniformity with a wide variety of design details.
What has been the response from the façade industry to your thin glass developments to date?
We work directly with partners from the industry on these projects. This allows the companies to develop an attractive unique selling point and learn a lot about the processing of thin glass. But the impact of the projects goes even further: There is a new material that brings with it completely new opportunities, but also requires a new way of constructive thinking. This has an inspiring effect on the market. We are doing the technical groundwork, so to speak, which others can develop into new architectural visions.
