Holding court
High performance IG units from CareyGlass are part of the glass-aluminium unitised facade of the new Bristol Civil Justice Centre.
The six-storey structure is based around an open atrium and provides the historic city with a modern court building and associated administration facilities. CareyGlass supplied around 1,300m2 of exterior glazing for the project, including large screen-printed and spandrel IG units.
The imposing glazed entrance to the Civil Justice Centre reflects the architects’ objective to bring natural light and ventilation into all spaces. The judicial accommodation is modelled on the traditional form of legal chambers and the final floor of this element is recessed and glazed to achieve a visually light top to the building.
CareyGlass worked closely with structural glazing specialist Glamalco, Miller Construction and Associated Architects to provide design solutions and glass samples to satisfy the project’s acoustic, aesthetic, solar performance and U-value design parameters. “It is relatively easy to specify and manufacture these elements separately in a sealed unit,” said Neil Wheeler, project manager for Glamalco. “However, combining all four in an IG unit is much more demanding in terms of design and manufacture. The double glazed units supplied by CareyGlass for the Bristol Civil Justice Centre are a statement in design and performance.”
The building’s acoustic ratings – in excess of 45dB in some areas – differed by floor and by room and had to be matched with solar gain factors, or G-values, of 0.33 or better. This necessitated the production of IG units with different constructions to suit the varying performance specifications, explained Chris Allen, UK Director for CareyGlass: “The products we supplied ranged from 6mm toughened low-e units to units consisting of an outer leaf of toughened laminated solar control glass with acoustic interlayer plus an inner leaf of toughened laminated glass incorporating acoustic interlayers and either fritted or ceramic glass.”
