A new five-metre high interactive art installation in North Sydney hints at a new potential for coloured glass in architecture.
Angles of Incidence by Warren Langley and Julia Davis is composed of differently angled planes of reflective, interactive, safety glass that create a multiplicity of reflections on a faceted surface.
Each of the deep blue glass panels that make up the structure has a coloured interlayer and colour gradation that is revealed only during changes to light levels in the surrounding environment. As light levels change, the glass passes from a reflective mode to its light transmitting mode and changes colour.
According to Wrangley, the new technology used for Angles of Incidence has the potential to revolutionise use of coloured glass in architecture.
“Perhaps the most exciting recent technical development involving glass in architecture has been the ability to print UV stable colours and/or imagery to the EVA interlayer of toughened, laminated safety glass,” says Langley.
“For the first time in history we can create an architectural glass to the exact colour we desire.”
The safety glass used by Langley and Davis is the same found in the glass balustrades, large entry doors and glazed facades of the surrounding office towers.
The work is part of the recently launched North Sydney Council Public Art Trail which has 18 other sites.
The trail link can be downloaded here.
Photography by Richard Glover
