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Spacial Magazine

Draped in a Translucent Gown

By: Ondřej Elsner Photo: archive
#Lasvit World of Design
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Although they remain firm­ly root­ed in the Czech glass­mak­ing tra­di­tion, glass facades her­ald a new era in glass use, chal­leng­ing archi­tects to embrace nov­el­ty and cre­ative self-expres­sion. As an exte­ri­or fea­ture, glass can pro­vide a com­plex solu­tion for cov­er­ing new build­ings in translu­cent mate­r­i­al, offer­ing orig­i­nal inter­pre­ta­tions of var­i­ous archi­tec­tur­al fea­tures and pro­vid­ing dec­o­ra­tive details. Take a look at the fol­low­ing six projects which prove that glass is increas­ing­ly at the cut­ting edge of architecture.

BAROZZI VEIGA

Phil­har­mon­ic Hall, Szczecin, Poland

Find­ing inspi­ra­tion in Expres­sion­ism, this Span­ish archi­tec­tur­al stu­dio designed a vast phil­har­mon­ic com­plex in the Pol­ish sea-side city of Szczecin. The struc­ture was built in 2014 and its most dis­tinc­tive fea­ture is the dra­mat­ic roof, which con­sists of numer­ous sharply tilt­ed gables and cuts an irreg­u­lar pro­file. The ver­ti­cal build­ing seems fold­ed in on itself, and the facade is coro­nat­ed with alu­minum and trans­par­ent ribbed glass, seem­ing to give it an icy crown. After sun­down, the build­ing shines with a white glow, spec­tral and almost immaterial.

Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown

KENGO KUMA

MEHRIN Muse­um, Brno, Czech Republic

The Japan­ese architect’s win­ning pro­pos­al for the Mora­vian Jew­ish Muse­um traces sym­bol­ic cir­cles and con­nects them into organ­ic spi­rals. The entire con­cept is based in the idea of free, flow­ing motion. The museum’s indi­vid­ual floors include the exhi­bi­tion spaces, a vast library and a relax­ation zone, and are screened by the mate­ri­als of the build­ing itself while remain­ing open to the world by means of round­ed glass pan­els which con­sti­tute the over­all out­door walls.

Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown

MAXIM VELČOVSKÝ

Wall in End­less Motion

Woven Wall was cre­at­ed to ful­fill the needs of the most demand­ing archi­tects and make their design visions of hotel lob­bies, res­i­den­tial build­ings or busi­ness spaces a real­i­ty. Due to the flex­i­ble tech­ni­cal spec­i­fi­ca­tions, the solu­tions are offered in the round­ed shapes of the let­ters U and C, as well as in oth­er forms one may come up with.

Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Woven Wall was cre­at­ed to ful­fill the needs of the most demand­ing archi­tects and make their design visions of hotel lob­bies, res­i­den­tial build­ings or busi­ness spaces a real­i­ty. Due to the flex­i­ble tech­ni­cal spec­i­fi­ca­tions, the solu­tions are offered in the round­ed shapes of the let­ters U and C, as well as in oth­er forms one may come up with.
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown

Opočenský Valouch Architects

LASVIT Head­quar­ters, Nový Bor, Czech Republic

The head­quar­ters of the Lasvit com­pa­ny is built on the tra­di­tions of the sur­round­ing glass­mak­ing region. Two new build­ings were added to two already exist­ing his­tor­i­cal sites, and were designed in the form of tra­di­tion­al, two-storey hous­es used by glass­mak­ers in the past. Both the facade and the roof of the cen­tral build­ing are cov­ered by cus­tom-made glass shin­gles and tiles. Their com­po­si­tion copies the pat­terns of slate shin­gles tra­di­tion­al­ly used in the region’s gables and roofs, and the sur­face of the glass also mim­ics their textures.

Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown

PETR HÁJEK

Glass House, Prague, Czech Republic

The fore­most Czech archi­tect Petr Hájek cre­at­ed a sketch spe­cial­ly for this pub­li­ca­tion, in which he designed a glass house for a vacant plot in the cen­ter of Prague. And because the plot has the shape of a glass shard, this motif nat­u­ral­ly inspired his pro­pos­al. The entire house is made of glass, has trans­par­ent walls, stair­cas­es, floors and roof. The build­ing hous­es an imag­i­nary sec­ond-hand book­shop designed to keep 333 000 publications.

Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown

WANDA VALIHRACHOVÁ

Imag­i­nary Building

This design by LASVIT’s young design­er makes clear that a glass facade needn’t be a flat sur­face encas­ing the entire struc­ture. In this par­tic­u­lar case, the hexag­o­nal tiles can be used as a high­ly dec­o­ra­tive fea­ture which ben­e­fits the struc­ture aes­thet­i­cal­ly. “I placed a glass frag­ment on the imag­i­nary build­ing, and it adorns it like some pre­cious jew­el,” com­ments the designer.

Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Pix­el Wall func­tions not only as an archi­tec­tur­al facade, but also as a dec­o­ra­tive detail or infor­ma­tive fea­ture which can make any archi­tec­tur­al design come alive. The indi­vid­ual glass tiles can be cus­tom-designed or can car­ry a typo­graph­ic element.
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
The organ­ic shape of a hexa­gon spawned the idea for the Pix­el Wall glass tiles, avail­able in many bespoke ver­sions. Their design cre­ates var­i­ous opti­cal effects which can be fur­ther enhanced by light­ing them in full RGBW spec­trum, as well as in the clas­si­cal and ele­gant cold or warm white.
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
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Tactile Touch →
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
The organic shape of a hexagon spawned the idea for the Pixel Wall glass tiles, available in many bespoke versions. Their design creates various optical effects which can be further enhanced by lighting them in full RGBW spectrum, as well as in the classical and elegant cold or warm white.
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
The Shingle Wall model builds on history itself, and its glass rendition imitates traditional shingles used in rural buildings.
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Woven Wall was created to fulfill the needs of the most demanding architects and make their design visions of hotel lobbies, residential buildings or business spaces a reality. Due to the flexible technical specifications, the solutions are offered in the rounded shapes of the letters U and C, as well as in other forms one may come up with.
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Pixel Wall functions not only as an architectural facade, but also as a decorative detail or informative feature which can make any architectural design come alive. The individual glass tiles can be custom-designed or can carry a typographic element.
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Thanks to the Wall Wash technologies, this glass facade can become a real work of art. Each tile is lighted separately, allowing the facade to project various patterns, perform colour changes or present simple visuals. The tiles can be lighted in the full RGBW spectrum.
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown
Lasvit Spacial Magazine: Draped in a Translucent Gown

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