wisepowder: Laminated Glass News speaks to Bill Marshall

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After completing my studies in 1976, I got my first job working as a draftsman at an architectural aluminum company that covered the production of the whole value chain of curtain walls, from casting the alloy, up to field installation. Later in my career, I managed a consulting company that promoted the use of value-added glass products, such as laminated and tempered glass, in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. This experience led me to form Estudio Marshall, a consulting firm specializing in facades. We don’t sell any products and we have no commercial relationships. Our focus is on design, quality control, forensics, and, very importantly, education.To get more news about wire mesh laminated glass, you can visit boegger.net official website.

Large units certainly rank up there as does the growing use of structural glass. We can now do balustrades without any metal – this would have been crazy 30 to 40 years ago. Interlayers like SentryGlas® ionoplast interlayers from Trosifol have changed the way you can use glass. This opens new design opportunities.

While large glass is popular with architects around the world, it can be challenging to source it locally. In Argentina, for example, glass fabrication is limited to 5 meters. We had a project designed in the US for an Argentinian building, which required 6 m panels, but we knew that no local company could produce panels of this size. So we had to go abroad to get the sizes we needed. Architects may have a vision, but we have to ask, “who can bring this vision to life?” As façade consultants, we employ the best technology available, such as AutoCAD and 3D printing, but we still have to be realistic about limitations in fabrication and logistics.It depends on the market and the country. Sometimes you do find architects who are more up to date in terms of technology and commercial capabilities, but sometimes you don’t. This is why we find the education angle about façade design and technology is a good business.

The View Building in Argentina was interesting. It is an apartment building and the owner wanted a curved façade on the balconies on all floors around the circumference of building. The initial design called for lots of aluminum posts, but I suggested a different approach to produce a cleaner, more unique appearance with structural laminated glass made with SentryGlas®. Thus, we designed an all-glass balustrade, with curved glass on the corners.

The Fortuny 32 structure in Madrid, was unique from an architectural standpoint. The original design was just a simple façade with sun screens. We proposed a double skin façade to provide a more controlled environment. The outer skin needed to be as invisible as possible, thus we specified a low-iron laminated glass with SentryGlas®, with the structural columns on the outside. The curved areas were cold bent units of the same configuration. You only see the façade from the inside. The façade supplier Bellapart did an amazing job with our design. The outcome is a very beautiful building that is almost sculptural.