Super Spacer excels in extraordinary Opus
Posted on 18/01/2018
‘The Opus’ is one of the most striking and original architectural developments the world has seen this century, and warm edge experts Edgetech played a crucial role in its construction.
The 21-storey tower, designed by celebrated Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, pushes physical and technological boundaries to achieve its extraordinary melting ice-cube shape.
Bringing such a bold and outlandish vision to life required world-leading expertise – which is how Edgetech, and its high-performance Super Spacer® TriSeal™, became involved in the project.
Edgetech Managing Director Chris Alderson commented: ‘The Opus is quite simply one of the most staggering and ambitious architectural projects attempted this decade.
‘It’s got a 6,000 square-metre flowing glass facade, a curved, 38-metre long, earthquake-proof glass bridge connecting two towers, and at night the structure is lit up by thousands of individually-controlled LEDs. Its central ‘void’ section consists of 4,554 irregularly-shaped IGUs, the vast majority of which were completely unique.
‘That called for a very specific type of spacer bar. Firstly, we couldn’t use automated application – virtually every IGU used on the project was a different shape. Secondly, rigid spacers were out of the question – they couldn’t practically be moulded into the weird and wonderful shapes that were required.
And thirdly, we needed something that offered the highest possible level of performance. In hot climates, in particular, a warm edge spacer has to work hard to hermetically seal the space between the panes. Due to the thermal interaction between hot sunlight and shadows, strong mechanical forces permanently act on the edge compound due to the movement of the glass.
‘That’s why we chose our premium flexible spacer, TriSeal. Its unique triple seal design incorporates an inner acrylic adhesive seal for immediate unit handling, a polyisobutylene primary seal for enhanced gas retention and low moisture vapour transmission, and an outer silicone seal for structural strength and durability.
‘It was the perfect fit for an astounding project – one we were absolutely delighted to be a part of.’
For more information about Edgetech please call 02476 639931 or visit: www.edgetechig.co.uk
