Bruce William Nicol writes about Pilkington’s Triple First claim (GA July, p38):

I was interested to read your recent article regarding Pilkington’s triple glazed Planar frameless system in London. Surely you have got your facts wrong or been misled in the claims made about being a world’s first.

As a practice Nicol Harkess Architects we designed and built a private house in Austria with a triple glazed frameless point fixed system supplied by Eckelt Glas Gmbh which was completed in 2000. Five years ago!

It was actually featured in the UK Architect’s Journal in 2001.

Please see the attached photos (above and below left). The calculated U value of the glass build up was 0.7W/m2K and by using Diamant low iron glass we were able to retain a very high light transmission.

I know that since this time Eckelt Glas Gmbh have supplied a similar system for a private house in Winnipeg, Canada.

So maybe your article should read first in UK rather than the grandiose ‘world’ title.

Source

Glass Age

Postscript

Regards, Bruce William Nicol RIBA, Architect