Members of the UK Green
CHAS Copyright 2003
Rothermere American Institute
The Drama of Glass!
Contained within the brief for the new modernist building which houses the Rothermere American Institute in Oxford, were strict requirements with regard to glare, solar control and UV protection. This, and the additional fact that the dominant south façade is extensively glazed with the resulting need to limit solar heat gain, led the architects to consider the design of a glass louvre brise-soleil.
Natural Ventilation
The building is naturally ventilated so the louvres are a vital element in its function but the architect was keen that, while providing shading, the triple height library and reading room should not turn into a ‘dark box’ and that there should be glimpses of the quad outside.
A Pleasant Quality of Light
The glass louvres fulfil these criteria while providing a pleasant quality of light and, in the context of the building’s historic setting, function as an elevational device that screens the existing and the new buildings from each other.
A key element in the building’s design is the 4.5m structural grid so, to conform to this, the brise-soleil is made up of five bays and hangs between vertical steel poles cantilevered out from the facade. Rather than one long strip of glass, each of the 15 louvre blades that make up each bay consists of two 2.2m lengths of 400mm wide glass. These in turn are supported on the underside by horizontal 4.5m long steel tubes and are secured with simple bolted connections to the carrier truss.
The glass has a dense white ceramic frit to create an opaque effect, while the truss steelwork is sandblast-finished stainless steel. Although the louvres are, fixed, they were designed to allow for some manual rotation to enable a degree of ‘fine tuning’ after installation.
At the top of the building, Levolux 9000 series 150mm and 300mm aluminium aerofoil louvres – powder coated – have been employed providing shading, and provide a strong emphasis to top of the façade.
" a high quality product that was faithful to our design intent"
Architect Jim Dunster, of Kohn Pedersen Fox, comments: “Levolux has delivered a high quality product that was faithful to our design intent. They provided a strong performance throughout the procurement process from shop drawings, fabrication and site installation.”
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| Architect: | Kohn Pedersen Fox |
| Products used: | Glass Fins |