Page 36 - Between light and shade
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between light and shade, TRANSPARENCy and reflection
However, this more transparent glass should
reflect ultraviolet light (invisible to the human
eye) in order to be visible to birds 19.
two technological developments
In my opinion, in future, two other major events
relating to glass are likely to have a decisive
influence within architecture.
The first relates to vacuum double glazing,
invented in 1989 at the University of Sydney by
Richard E. Collins and Steven Robinson, and
produced on an industrial scale in Japan by NSG
(Nippon Sheet Glass) since January 1997 20 under
the “Spacia” brand. This product is revolutio-
nary, but it has taken all the time since then for
its “evidence” to emerge and for it to very soon
be available in Europe (with other characteristics
and improved performances).
19 Katarine Logans in her article “For the birds” (Architectural
Record, 10/2015, pp. 148-154) notes that “hundreds of millions
of birds” die each year as the result of hitting glass panes in
the United States of America alone! Yet glazing with “UV”
coatings is not available in Europe. An internal memo from
AGC (David.Kelich@eu.agc.com) without a reference or date,
refers to only “one hundred million birds in Europe” (received
by e-mail on 2015.12.17 / 18:04, Bhadresh Parbhoo@eu.agc.com).
20 ECBS News, Issue 27, June 1998, pp. 7-10 : “Vacuum Glazing
Research Program at the University of Sydney, Australia”. NSG
sent me samples to the office dating from as far back as 1998-
11-04!
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