Energy-efficient glazing for daylight-rich town hall

The West Betuwe merged municipality has moved into a completely renovated town hall in Geldermalsen. The accommodation has been transformed from a rather dark and labyrinthine building into a daylight-rich and bright building with a seamless integration between the old building and the new building. Responsible for this is the special glazing by Vandaglas, which supplied, among other things, the most neutral type of glass in the world for this project.

The renovated city hall has been extended by two building sections with a glass requirement of approximately 750 m2. However, old and new are not directly connected, but connected with skylights to bring as much daylight into the building as possible. The public entrance is completely transparent and is located in the new section that looks like a pavilion. Indeed, again with a lot of glass. Given the large glass area, the various variants and the specific requirements, Vandaglas was called in at an early stage by the facade builder on duty - Hermeta - for appropriate advice. "We distinguish ourselves with a complete range and are one of the few glass manufacturers who supply everything from one source. Whether it's large formats, fire-resistant, solar control, curved, screen-printed or extra-clear glass, we care. We take care of it. And the customer has a single point of contact with us throughout the construction process," emphasizes Stephan Bremmers, commercial technical advisor at Vandaglas.

Solar

The renovated city hall is a sustainable energy-neutral building. "This is why IsoPerform XTR61/29 was chosen," says Stephan. "Basically, this type of glass is already extremely energy-efficient and clear because of its high selectivity: the difference between light transmission and sunlight penetration. It reduces energy costs by reducing the demand for artificial light and air conditioning. The glass blocks the sun in summer and retains indoor heat longer in winter. Therefore, you experience extra comfort all year round from this type of glazing. For the renovation, we supplied approximately 300m2 of IsoPerform XTR61/29 in a neutral version. For the new building, it's about 325 m2 of TriplePerform XTR61/29 in the ExtraClear version, a version with extra-clear base glass."

Extra bright 

The solar heat-resistant low-e coating XTR61/29 is already perceived as neutral and clear in the base, but with the ExtraClear we go one step further, Stephan explains. "Via a special process, we reduce the iron oxide value in the glass, which makes the glass extra clear. Especially in such a transparent pavilion with large 'pieces' of glass, this is of great added value. Here we have excessively large windows of up to 2 meters wide by 5.40 meters high. Because we are so broadly oriented, we are able to provide a suitable solution for these specials as well." The glazing for the renovated town hall was produced in factories in Austria and in Poland. Apart from the Iso and TriplePerform XTR61/29 glazing mentioned above, Vandaglas also supplied about fifteen panes with a fire-resistant requirement of 30 minutes. "That too is the advantage of a total supplier, where the customer has only one point of contact for all possible glass types."