Fenestration is normally viewed as an aesthetic feature, but it also critically affects building performance.
Here at Q One Fenestration, we are passionate about helping our clients find the best glass fenestration solutions for their commercial and corporate building projects. Not only is glass incredibly beautiful, but it is also extremely functional and can effectively improve your building’s performance.
This article will look at how you can use glass to your benefit for your building fenestration requirements: from optimising your natural surroundings, making the most out of your interior space, reducing your carbon footprint and so much more.
Glass fenestration reduces heat in summer and retains heat in winter reducing the demand for heating and cooling, making buildings more energy-efficient, saving costs and improving performance.
Glass also offers the most effective sound control as well as thermal control.With the rising cost of electricity (both on your bottom line as well as on the environment), it makes a lot of sense to use building materials that help you keep your energy costs down. Using a lot of glass in commercial building design, you can help keep your interior space cool and breezy in the summer, and warm and cozy in the winter.
During the hot summer months, windows can be opened to make the most out of the fresh air and its natural cooling properties. If your building does not have windows that open, you could use stylish shades to shield occupants from the sun’s rays. South Africa sees a lot of sunshine during the day in the winter and allowing plenty of sunshine into your building’s glass can help to warm it up naturally and free of charge.
Although glass is transparent, it can offer soundproofing qualities. Chat to Q One about how you can use glass to reduce noise pollution in your building.
Aesthetics is playing a larger role in making a statement with efficient building design and environmentally friendly material usage like glass
Glass is a naturally beautiful material, especially for building design. Unlike some materials, it has a classic and timeless quality that will continue to look elegant for many decades to come
If you were wondering why glass is an excellent, environmentally-friendly option for commercial fenestration, below are a few key reasons:
Glass helps create low-energy buildings
Modern commercial fenestration is thermally insulating, helping companies to spend far less on their heating bills in the winter. The same can be said in the warmer, summer months. Since glass (especially double-glazed panels) helps maintain the cool temperature created by air conditioning, energy bills are lower. Traditionally, glass was viewed as a building’s weak point in terms of temperature loss, but this is no longer the case with modern, high-performing glass.
Glass helps companies to decrease their carbon footprint
Since commercial fenestration can help you to reduce your energy costs by not using the building’s air conditioning or heating, this also means that you reduce your carbon footprint as a result. Most international firms are continuously looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint, and using glass in office buildings is a great way to get started.
Glass does not have a large environmental impact
When constructing a building, responsible architects and builders consider the building’s entire life cycle. The building’s potential demolition in the decades (or even centuries) to come should be considered. It is for this reason that glass is becoming increasingly popular for commercial fenestration as glass has a very little environmental impact. Glass panels can be repurposed, reused, or easily recycled, depending on their condition.
Glass naturally introduces light into your workspace, eliminating the need for artificial light
With office workers spending a large portion of their days within an office building, the ability to incorporate natural light into the space is a definite advantage.In addition to eliminating the need for excess lighting, large fenestration panels incorporate plenty of natural light and provide a clear view of the exterior world. This can help improve employee morale and strengthen building occupants’ connection to nature.
Glass is ideal for all climates and seasons
Africa experiences plenty of sunshine and large windows do an excellent job of incorporating natural light. However, some regions experience summer or winter rainfall, overcast and cloudy days where natural light is not optimal. In such cases, large glass panels on buildings can help incorporate as much natural light as possible into the building.
Further advanced technological features are available with glass to add to aesthetics, privacy, office plan layout/structure, energy & temperature efficiency, and more
Q One understands that many commercial building occupants demand a lot from the spaces they occupy. Working in an aesthetically pleasing environment can help employees to become more productive and enjoy their work much more. Modern buildings often have a need for sliding doors or stacking doors as well as glassed boardrooms. These can all be custom-made according to the building’s unique measurements and shape.
You may think that because glass is transparent, it offers little to no privacy. This is fortunately untrue because on/off privacy gives you the best of both worlds:
- You get to enjoy the illusion of space and freshness provided by glass
- You can turn on your privacy glass whenever you need to
There are three main types of doors used with glass fenestration:
- Revolving doors serving an entrance and exit function.
- Swing doors serving an entrance and exit function.
- Industrial doors serving material handling and security functions.
These doors can be designed to enhance the look of your building and offer ease of use and convenience.
Looking at using glass for your new office building? Contact Q One for more information as we are the foremost commercial glass supplier for performance-driven fenestration in South Africa.