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between the facade’s two skins, having the building built on piles or stilts, the use of at-slab mushroom oors, freely expandable structures, steel frame bracing, series of facade overhangs – all such aspects are nding their way into the architect’s vocabulary. In retrospect, the constructive simplicity of the AGC Glass Building seems nothing more than the technical conclusion of an already long series of innovations:
DOuBLe SkIN FaCaDe
A series of ten piles supports the steel skeleton frame of the Brussimmo of ce block in Brussels at the intersection of Rue Belliardstraat and Rue deTrèves/Trierstraat (Figure 2 [01/225]). Overhanging the ground oor, the double skin facade features
an outside skin of Glaverbel ‘Stopsol Supersilver Clear’ glass mounted on thin aluminium pro les, while the inside skin consists of a wood frame, external blinds and ordinary double glazing.
exteRNaL LOuVReS
Looking at the headquarters of Editions Dupuis, on Rue Jules Destrée in Marcinelle, we nd an outside skin of ordinary double glazing and external louvres, tted on thin aluminium pro les, and an inside wood-framed skin of single glazing (1993, gure 3 [01/286]).
extRa-CLeaR GLaSS
Extra-clear glass was used for the rst time for the headquarters of the Compagnie Nationale à Portefeuille in Gerpinnes7 (1993-1995, gure 4 [01/320]).The glass of the opaque sections is white-enam- elled on the rear and acid-matte- nished on the front.The use of extra-clear glass for the double skin facade was, however, not really able to reduce the greenish coloration caused by the electrolytic layers intended to reduce the solar factor.
This led me to pay closer attention to this aspect, and I now limit the use of such layers to a strict minimum to improve both light transmittance and the colour rendering index (CRI).
tHe auLa maGNa
This led to the double skin facade of the UCL’s Aula Magna, Place du Couchant in Louvain-la-Neuve (1996-2001, Figures 5, 6 and 7 [01/291])8 being made entirely of almost completely clear double glazing.This was the rst building where computer modelling and simulation software were used to calculate the natural light- ing, thermal comfort, energy consumption and acoustics, with this work being done simultaneously with the development of the building’s architecture9.
I designed the roof of the 1,200-seat auditorium and stage area to let in natural light between sunrise and sunset, with the plan being to have heliostat mirrors concentrating sunlight on the stage. how- ever, the auditorium’s future operator took advantage of one of my trips abroad to order the closure of the windows provided for this purpose – his bad luck! Fortunately the foyer was not obscured! In any case, there is still a chance that this blunder can be corrected and I am sure that this will happen one day. In the meantime, it is just sad (besides increasing the energy bills) that the exemplary
Fig. 5, 6, 7 | 01-297 | aula magna | Louvain-la-Neuve | 1996-2001
Fig. 8a | aula magna | View of the main auditorium | Simulation with natural lighting
Fig. 8b | aula magna | View of the main auditorium | actual implementation