ABSTRACT

STRUCTURAL GLASS: SCL GLASS HEADQUARTERS AND SHOWROOM The glass pavilion (figure 22.1) designed as a headquarters and showroom for SCL, a glassmanufacturing company in Brisbane, Australia, was our first project starting the practice in 2002. The pavilion was meant to showcase the glass production, fabrication, and installation capabilities of the new manufacturing facility. It was designed as an enclosure made entirely of structural laminated glass with a 21 m clear span (figure 22.2). The ribbed enclosure had to resist thermal variation, wind and induced seismic loadings, with a built-in redundancy for failsafe operation. All these parameters required the close relationship between geometry and structural performance (figures 22.3 and 22.4a-c). The goal was to maximize efficiency by expressing the forces through the form, which required an iterative design process incorporating required structural performance into each rib form.