Most Innovative Decorative Glass Project
Project: Louis Vuitton flagship store, Beijing, China
Nathan Allan Glass Studios
Glass Magazine Award Winners 2018. Glass Magazine, glassmagazine.com, has announced the winners of the 2018 Glass Magazine Awards. The prestigious glass and metal industry awards program recognizes the best products and glass applications the commercial, retail and fabrication markets have to offer.
“These projects appear to have gone beyond the utilitarian aspects of transparency and reflectivity to push the boundaries of what is possible,” says John Stephenson, Glass Magazine Award judge and senior architect and envelope specialist, BRPH Architects and Engineers, brph.com. “There are some truly remarkable examples in these entries that combine the art and science of what we do as designers and builders to create something original and new. I believe that nothing speaks to the state of our building technology as the role of glass in defining the contemporary building envelope.”
“It’s amazing how our industry continues to evolve, responding to the design challenges presented with innovative new product developments, new equipment and tools,” says GMA Judge Alice Dickerson, founder/managing director, Division 08 Marketing LLC, division08marketing.com.
Review magazine online, or you can read the article below:
Louis Vuitton’s flagship store in Shin Kong Place mall, located in Beijing, China, now boasts a newly renovated, glowing glass storefront courtesy of Nathan Allan Glass Studios Inc., nathanallan.ca//testsite. The fabricator provided over 1,000 square feet of its custom kiln form glass, with a pattern simulating one of the brand’s logos.
To fulfill the design goal of producing a visually attractive storefront that will attract shoppers, Nathan Allan fabricated 32 panels of a deep-patterned, 3D decorative glass. Forming the deep glass pattern, while also incorporating clear pattern lines in the glass surface, posed a significant challenge, says Barry Allan, director, Nathan Allan. “Pattern lines define the design, but they also create technical issues with safety tempering. As the glass can
form too deep, the extreme depth can also prevent the finished glass from tempering,” he says. “The solution was to create molds which allowed for the perfect depth in the pattern, and created lines which defined, but did not alter the pattern.”
The storefront’s beautiful glow is courtesy of installed edge-lighting which illuminates the glass crystals applied to the back of the glass. The effect required Nathan Allan’s staff to apply millions of crystals by hand to specific sections of the glass, a process which took months to complete, says Allan. Delivering the glass on time required all hands on deck, with artists, factory technicians and also Allan himself working seven days a week to finish the job.
Glass panels were installed into a powder coated gloss black storefront framing system with a deep bronze anodized finish, installed by Permasteelisa, Hong Kong, permasteelisagroup.com. The general contractor was Josef Gartner Curtain Wall (Shanghai) Co., josef-gartner.permasteelisagroup.com. Design direction came from Ada Leung and Arne Von Seidlitz, interior designers for Louis Vuitton, us.louisvuitton.com. Contact Nathan Allan Today.
“The glass design which Nathan Allan developed and produced for the Louis Vuitton flagship store in Beijing China, is a unique glass creation which has never been produced before,” says Barry Allan – Director Nathan Allan Glass Studios. “ The uniqueness of the glass design, with such a deep pattern, and also being able to produce this glass in a safety tempered finished form, is remarkable accomplishment.
The execution of the glass design, so that the pattern blends together seamlessly, from top to bottom and left to right, is an achievement of extraordinary efforts. Keep in mind that 32 panels are installed in this project, over 1000 square feet of glass, and every panel fit perfectly! Edge lighting is added the storefront frames, which creates a bright white, and even glow throughout each glass panel, while at the same time, illuminating all the crystals which are fused onto the back surface of each panel. The resulting effect is simply Brilliant!!! ”
