October 27, 2015

Frameless Glass Balustrades to the AJ Retrofit of the Year

Written by Rebecca Clayton

Foyles Bookshop has won the Retrofit of the Year Award from the Architects Journal. The modern internal design project by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands created a bright and clean internal design. One major aspect of the multi storey interior redesign was multiple frameless glass balustrades.

Frameless glass balustrades allowed the eight new retail floors inside the four-storey shell to be filled with natural light from a central atrium void.

The jury was highly impressed by the use of natural light, enhanced by the use of frameless glass balustrades, and other environmental improvements that renovated the labyrinthine old bookshop into a bright modern space.

Frameless structural glass installations, such as glass balustrades, are the perfect way to ensure that natural light can penetrate far into a buildings structure, through multiple level changes and staircases.

At Foyles Bookshop the frameless glass balustrades were used on the multi storey level changes surrounding the central atrium void as well as on multiple cantilevered balconies to the book store with no handrails required.

These durable, structural glass installations must be designed in accordance to the line load requirements for your specific building, something that IQ do in house. From here we can specify the glass thickness required and the fixing design required. Most fixings for frameless balustrades are designed to sit below the finished floor levels, like at Foyles Bookshop, to maintain a minimal architectural design.

A standard balustrade height of 1.1m is normally used however taller balustrades can be created, with an increased glass specification to suit.

Contact IQ for more information about using frameless glass balustrades on your architectural design project.