Located on the busy Washingtonplatz next to Berlin’s Central Station, the cleverly sculpted cube berlin is in the heart of the city’s business, government, and cultural district. With its prominent location, 3XN Architects of Copenhagen designed Cube Berlin to be a showstopping sculpture on the square.
Because Cube Berlin is no ordinary glass-covered building, its unique design required careful attention to product selection, ensuring that the right glass product would provide solar control to avoid heat gain/loss as well as be structurally sound.
Design
The solution was a pioneering double-skin facade that uses coatings and Saflex PVB interlayers in a unique combination. To address the building owner’s strict energy requirements, Guardian Glass and Eastman selected, tested, and used reflective solar coatings on the outer skin of the building while adding a Saflex solar-absorbing PVB interlayer to control solar heat gain in the cavity, creating a solar-absorbing and solar-reflecting effect in a single laminate.
Occupants of the cube will be treated with floor-to-ceiling views while enjoying a comfortable yet highly energy-efficient space. Passersby will be treated to ever-changing reflections in the angled facade. And for students of architectural glass, the building will serve as a case study of innovation for years to come.
Product Benefits
- Improve the selectivity of stand-alone laminates in combination with robust solar control coatings
- Coatings provide reflection color and overall light transmission
- Provides selectivity
- Improved solar performance/g-value improved with coatings
