‘Virtually every IGU different’
23rd January 2018

‘The Opus’ in Dubai, designed by Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, said to ‘push physical and technological boundaries to achieve its extraordinary melting ice-cube shape’.

Edgetech managing director Chris Alderson Bringing explained how Edgetech and its Super Spacer TriSeal became involved in the project:

“The Opus is quite simply one of the most staggering and ambitious architectural projects attempted this decade.

“It has 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. 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.”

www.edgetechig.co.uk