Vitro reviews the facade of the spectacular new Terminal 1 at Barcelona Airport

Vitro Cristalglass, an affiliate of Vitro Europe, supplied 85,000 square meters of architectural glass for the new Terminal 1 (T1) in the El Prat Airport in Barcelona, inaugurated this past June 16th.

Among the authorities present for the opening of the largest infrastructure project in Cataluña to be constructed in last two decades were Spain’s President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Development Minister, José Blanco and the President of Generalitat de Cataluña, José Montilla.

The new terminal practically doubles the previous capacity and traffic volume and is now considered the second most important airport in Spain covering more than 544,000 square meters with 166 ticket counters and nearly 12,000 vehicle parking spaces.

The concept of the new airport is that of a “hub for air communication” of an international stature; its objective is to satisfy the growing needs of an increasing number of passengers in the region.

According to information from the Minister of Development, thanks to the new Terminal, El Prat can handle 55 million travelers per year versus 31 million last year.

The construction of the new Terminal, designed by the architect Ricardo Bofill, began in 2005 and required an investment of 1,258 million Euros supported by 4,000 workers. In this magnificent structure, Vitro’s participation has been crucial, through its European affiliate.

According to Alberto Gómez, Marketing Manager for Vitro Cristalglass, the relationship with the project began in 2003 through the support of TYPSA, a project support company together with Ricardo Bofill’s study.

“The selection of glass was thoroughly studied according to the characteristics for the facade, exposure to sunlight with no type of wings for shade. This characteristic led us to recommend the use of value added architectural glass that offers reduced solar impact and a very low heat transfer coefficient”, he explains.

The final decision centered on a double glazed glass composition with a 32% solar factor and a heat transfer coefficient (U) of 1,3 W/m2K, formed by 12mm tempered glass on the exterior (SOLARLUX® Supernatural 68 TEMPLEX®), a 16mm air chamber and interior glass sections of MULTIPACT® AKUSTEX® composed of two 6mm colorless sections of glass with acoustical reinforcement. The combination of these attributes achieves an acoustical isolation factor of 47 dB.

“To screen out the entry of solar light it was decided to apply a silk screen covering over the outside glass. The design selected by AENA and the prescription specs team were 2 mm thick white lines with different percentages of coverage depending on the exact location of the glazed unit”, added Gómez.

He concludes by pointing out that, for the interior installations of the terminal, noteworthy is the selection of tempered opaque 12mm glass (TEMPLEX® PAK white) covering of the ventilation totems.