Will Alsop, a leading London architect, has been working his magic across the water in polder city – Almere, Holland – near Amsterdam, with a 17,500 square metre waterfront Urban Entertainment Centre. One of the most impactful retail buildings in the Centre is the Media Markt – one of seven buildings designed here by Alsop from his Rotterdam based office.

As the use of bricks was not permitted, the architects were obliged to seek an alternative to traditional brick and in this instance, the alternative chosen by the architects was Vanceva Design coloured laminated glass from Solutia.

Media Markt, selling a wide range of electronics, attracts attention with the use of coloured glass on the front of the building and glass wall cladding on the back, which is enclosed. For the colourful facade of the Media Markt, approximately 70 different designs of Vanceva Design laminated glass were made with a view to creating the most colourful and varied facade. The ground level glass layers were kept transparent to avoid the merchandise being seen in colour in the shop-windows. The individual colours were first tested by Alsop on their intensity. In the end, all the glass panels were combinations of different interlayers. For example, yellow is made of two yellow 0.38mm Vanceva interlayers. Laminators Rapid Pane from Maassluis, Holland, made samples to ensure the right colours were achieved.

Source

Glass Age