An established partnership between Architectural Glass & Cladding and world-leading glass manufacturer Okalux GmbH has helped the architectural community discover the advantages of energy efficiency, ending user discomfort and making use of natural daylight in projects throughout Australia and South East Asia.
Architectural Glass & Cladding has more than 20 years of experience in the glass and façade industries. Their partnership with Okalux GmbH began in 2010.
Paul Nipperess, Sales and Marketing Manager of Architectural Glass & Cladding, explains that their goal is to develop optimum solutions to satisfy the specific demands of architects with glass.
According to Paul, Okalux has decades of experience in the development and manufacture of high quality insulating glass for international construction projects. Their very first product, which sparked off the idea for the founding of the company, also set the standard for its powers of innovation. Hollow fibres, which were originally conceived for the textiles industry, produce great advantages when inserted in the space between the panes of a window, producing a soft diffusion of daylight and deep illumination of interiors. Okalux followed this up with systems for light deflection and improved diffusion, transparent heat insulation and energy reduction.
Observing that glass is one of the most fascinating materials available to architects, Paul says it allows natural light into buildings and contributes decisively towards the end user's comfort. Okalux products represent a balance of often contradictory demands: supplying a building with light and thermal energy while simultaneously protecting against overheating, heat loss and UV radiation. Paul has called on architects, designers and builders to keep windows on their radar early by ‘creating purpose built solutions’.
This partnership between Okalux and Architectural Glass & Cladding has provided innovative solutions to several key projects including 570 Bourke Street Melbourne, Australian Catholic University NSW, Australian War Memorial ACT, The Peter Doherty Institute (University of Melbourne), Illumin8 Building (Adelaide University), Malaiwana Estate (Phuket, Thailand), and 5 Martin Place (Sydney).
Projects currently under construction include Monash University (Melbourne), and the Hong Kong Art Museum.
Image: Peter Doherty Institute - Melbourne, Australia
