ARCHITECTURAL MATERIALS
How glass technology can help future-proof facilities
Dr Céline Glipa, CEO of dynamic glass specialist, Eyrise, discusses how recent developments in glass technology ‘offer intelligent opportunities to re-shape the design of healthcare buildings’.
The recent pandemic has pushed the NHS estate to its limit, requiring a number of hospitals, and indeed other venues such as exhibition and conference centres, to instantly convert their premises to accommodate COVID patients, while simultaneously ensuring the safety of other patients and healthcare workers. There has been much impressive repurposing in response to these immediate challenges. However, the pandemic has also revealed the constraints of the NHS’s existing physical infrastructure, and highlighted an urgency to create more flexible environments that can easily adapt to newly identified human needs. At the same time, there is increasing pressure for buildings to focus on environmental performance and occupant wellbeing. How should healthcare designers best remodel their estates to meet these longer-term requirements?
Environmental ambitions Climate change is one of the greatest challenges our global communities face, requiring a drastic reduction in carbon emissions to slow its effects. Buildings account for more than 30% of global carbon emissions,1
Privacy glass resolves the conflicting and intermittent needs for natural light, social connection, privacy, and hygiene.
and are a
key component of the climate change mitigation solution. The UK is among many countries
around the world committed to minimising the environmental impact of its new and existing building stock; however, carbon performance is not the only consideration for building designers. With a renewed focus on occupants, buildings are now expected to enhance quality of life too. As a result, designers and architects of healthcare facilities are tasked with delivering efficient, low- carbon buildings that maintain a high level of occupant comfort. The facade of a building has become a crucial factor in its overall performance, with designers seeking to find solutions that manage daylight penetration, solar control, glare mitigation, and thermal comfort. The continuing architectural trend towards highly glazed buildings has spurred the advancement of facade technologies that seek to resolve these tensions while maximising facade
transparency. One such technology is dynamic or switchable glazing, which has been ranked as number nine in the ‘100 solutions to reverse climate change’, according to an ongoing study by Project Drawdown,2
a resource for
climate solutions. By modulating the transmittance of light and thermal energy, dynamic glazing can provide a higher level of flexibility than static solutions, such as fixed glazing with external shading devices. This flexibility derives from the glass’s capacity to adjust its optical properties in response to diverse types of stimuli, such as glass temperature in the case of thermochromic glazing, or voltage, in the case of electrochromic glazing.
An increase in popularity So-called smart thermochromic and electrochromic glazing have increased in popularity in recent years, but have limitations. These include slow switching speeds, where transitions may take up
to 30 minutes, and colour rendering that produces an unwelcome yellow or blue effect when tinted. Recently, glass powered by proprietary Licrivision liquid crystal technology has been developed which is outperforming this first- generation switchable glass. Based on the same principles as the liquid crystal display screens on our smartphones and televisions, dynamic liquid crystal glass reacts instantly, and can withstand countless switching.
How Licrivision technology works A liquid crystal mixture is placed between two glass sheets coated with a transparent conductive film. Prompted by a low voltage, the molecules change orientation and regulate the amount of light and heat passing through. Liquid crystals always remain liquid between the glass panes, making it easy to dismantle and repurpose at the end of the lifecycle too. Used in external facades, glass produced with this technology can switch
April 2022 Health Estate Journal 47
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