Michael Maiese and Josh Keller from Bohlin Chwinski Jackson lectured on Bohlin Chwinski Jackson’s experimental practice of glazing with different types of architectural projects. The group lectured on three different projects that focused on the importance of experimental techniques in glazing that included new innovations in glazing applications; such as, sun shading through glazing, storefront applications, and colored gradient glass with the three projects lectured on being the Rakow Research Library, Apple Store on Regent Street, and the Campus For A Global Entertainment Company.
The first project that the representatives from Bohlin Chwinski Jackson lectured on was the Rakow Research Library in Corning, New York which is also a museum for glass. The design team wanted to do something innovative in the field of glazing that would also be beneficial to the building and its program, which houses an unique collection of historical drawings that cannot have sunlight hit the surface. The resulting design was the idea of creating a shading design within the glazing to help protect the amount of sunlight that would enter the space. The shading design was compromised of staggering line patterns on both sides of the façade that was able to shade the interior from the outside sunlight. The designers looked at sun patterns throughout the years and strategically placed the line pattern to best allow for shading into the building. This design pattern can be applied to different buildings around the world, making this a sustainable day lighting strategy by accommodating for different environmental conditions. The idea of using lines on the glass to shade the interior can help replace costs of maneuverable louvers, if economic concerns are prevalent in design development.
Another experimental condition the firm worked with was a store front condition in the Apple Store on Regent Street in London. The project is an adaptive reuse building, which is own by the crown, located on the first floor of a several floor structure. Natural day lighting was a main concern due to the lack of sunlight the store would get from the sky and the local weather conditions of London, England. Another major concern was how to get people upstairs to view the company’s project. The response to these issues included making glass transparent so that no boundaries were placed between the consumer and the product. The team also focused on creating an overhead lighting system that would mimic natural day lighting, by using a mixture of natural and electric lighting, to entice people to go upstairs. The idea of mimicking natural day lighting is a sustainable strategy for allowing natural day lighting to serve as the forefront to providing as much natural day lighting as possible but also allows for enough electric lighting needed to light a space, depending on the weather conditions.
The final project the representatives talked about is the Campus For a Global Entertainment Company in Los Angeles, California. The design focused on color treatments to glazing applications. This particular project focused on the color range from blue to white that used a two line work gradient. The notion of colored glazing can be used in sustainable design by providing shading to the interior of the building and could also reduce solar radiation inside the building. By creating colored window treatments, sunlight can be transparent to the inside of the building, without the interior spaces heating up which is integral to the area that this project was built for but could be used in other regions of the world including the Midwest due to the hot and humid summers that the region experiences.
In conclusion, the design firm of Bohlin Chwinski Jackson uses experimental techniques in developing glazing that provides for maximum sustainability within a building. The projects of the Rakow Research Library, Apple Store at Regent Street, and the Campus For a Global Entertainment Company in Los Angeles provided different examples of different sustainable techniques used for each project that included the topics of: sun shading, natural day lighting mimicry, and colored gradient glass. Each of these different techniques can be modified to best suit the region of the design project so that the building performs to the best of its abilities. By creating sun shades within the glass, less glare is transmitted inside the building providing for better work areas and less solar radiation. Mimicking natural sunlight is a sustainable strategy that can use a mixture of natural day lighting and electrical lighting to provide amble lighting in a store front condition. Finally, colored glazing is used to provide less reflectance of the sun within the work area providing for less glare and better work areas. Each idea presented in the lecture demonstrates that with the future of glazing, anything is possible.