New trends in Europe using glass in architectural design

Mediaset (Cologno Monzese, Milan), Italy’s foremost private media company, has recently carried out an important face-lift to its headquarters setting a new example of architectural innovation and becoming a communication emblem. The dominating element of the design is its impressive ventilated curved façade with a “double-skin” in laminated safety glass and DuPont™ SentryGlas® interlayer.

The outcome is a work of art for the most important media company in Italy that features a striking visual impact and also acts as enduring protection for the building.
Buildings of the 1970’s, like the Mediaset headquarters, are more and more often subject to renovations in order to respond to contemporary construction requirements such as thermal and acoustic insulation and energy efficiency. The creation of structures made with DuPont™ SentryGlas® safety interlayer leads the way to a new world of functional, convenient and appealing  innovative projects, allowing planners to maintain historical architectural heritage and ensure new  generation performance and visual quality.

DuPont™ SentryGlas® safety interlayers played a key role in the making of the 1500 square meterlarge ‘double skin’ façade in front of the Mediaset building. This exterior protection is a remarkable construction built by CNS spa (Milan) and designed by the architect Franco De Nigris of Axistudio Milano. For the imposing vertical surface, the structural engineer Paolo Mariottoni  together with the CNS Technical Service and Consulting department designed an almost invisible steel structure to be used with new metal fixing devices of extremely reduced dimensions for the glass panels. This innovative system was made in order to have minimal impact on the appearance of the glass façade, and to provide high quality performance and structural resistance.

Paolo La Varra, Senior Architect Technical Service department of CNS spa, explained: “The new system allowed us to confer a modern  appearance to the project, with a smooth and monolithic visual impact. In order to achieve this, we required a rather advanced glass application and  DuPont™ SentryGlas® fully satisfied these expectations.” For the new façade of the Mediaset building, CNS spa was awarded with the Special Prize at the ‘2008 RE Real Estate Awards’, the Italian ‘Oscars’ for architecture and construction projects of significant proportions.

Paolo Mariottoni, engineer and glass structural design specialist, specified: “With SentryGlas® we were able to turn the project into a reality, with optimum performance and safety characteristics.  The structural resistance of SentryGlas® allowed us to reduce the overall  weight of the laminated glass panels and to use an almost invisible steel support. Another fundamental issue was that of providing increased safety with continuing protection in case of glass breakage and fallout.

SentryGlas® interlayer ensures the integrity of the glass façade thanks to its excellent post-breakage performance and mechanical  properties, features that it maintains even at high temperatures.” The laminated glass panels used to create the smooth sail-shaped façade were made in different sizes, the width being 1.1 meters and the height ranging from 2.2 to 3 meters. The panels were produced by Vetrodomus (Brescia, Italy), a specialized company in the conversion of flat glass and the production of laminated safety glass. The lower-weight sheets of laminated glass are of a sandwich structure, consisting of 8mm tempered glass, 1.52mm SentryGlas® structural interlayer and 8mm screen printed glass (compared with glass widths of 10mm and 12mm respectively required for a PVB laminate of  equivalent strength). The panels, installed with the screen printed glass on the exterior, create an elegant effect of transparency and privacy. From a distance the façade looks like an opaque reflecting surface, then getting closer, the opacity magically transforms into an ethereal clarity that reveals the protected original construction.

SentryGlas® was created by DuPont to provide a superior solution in the use of glass in architecture and construction; its superior strength and lasting clarity, even after years of service, has opened up a world of possibilities for both architects and structural engineers. Valentina Gizzi, Senior Market Development Representative, explains: “SentryGlas® represents an economically advantageous solution: because of the mechanical properties of the interlayers, it is possible to reduce the weight of the glass and consequently of the supporting structure, like in case of the Mediaset building.” DuPont™ SentryGlas® structural interlayer is widely used worldwide for  architectural projects such as balustrades, flooring, stair treads and pedestrian bridges.