High Transparency Glass Façade System for Giant Atrium without Tempered Glass

Akihiko Hamada, Masakazu Kimura & Katsuya Takano, Nikken Sekkei
Hideaki Jo, Takanobu Enomoto & Katsumi Watanabe, Nippon Sheet Glass Co.,Ltd
Shigeru Hikone, Jin Sasaki & Susumu Matsunobu, Arup

We challenged to design high transparency glass façade system, which is safety and stabilized for giant atrium- 40m high, 100m wide.

Any structural members except 12.8m span x 40m high columns exist in the atrium. Horizontal glass transoms spanning 12.8m between columns work against wind load. Vertical glass mullions are supported by nodes suspended from cable and at the same time the weight of face glass panels, glass mullions and glass transoms are suspended from upper beams.

Cantilevered arms reaching out from 40m columns and glass beams are supposed to make a complicated movement under a seismic load. However, the system is adaptable to the movement by connecting at the joint
flexibly and simply.

Fully tempered glass, which has a possibility of spontaneous breakage, is not in use to make a façade system stabilized. As for safety factor, laminated glass is in used in case of breakage. If any glass panels are broken by accident, it can be replaced easily or system will not be broken. The façade system consists of minimum size of metal members and maximum size of glass panels.

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The Authors