Architectural glass
Architectural glass
Solutions to meet your most creative designs
Due to the various properties of architectural glass, there is almost no limit to making your design ideas come to life. From a curved, highly transparent structural facade or curtain wall, to huge colored glass surfaces, architectural glass can help you meet your aesthetic challenges and the energy performance you require for your project.
What are the properties of architectural glass?
Architects have the freedom to create visually stunning glazed facades by reflecting the surroundings or by showing more of what’s happening inside a building. In terms of energy performance, the reflection of solar energy and the intensity of thermal insulation are impacted by architectural glazing.
The energy efficiency of modern architectural glazing can allow you to create large glazed areas that help connect building occupants with the outdoors and provide more natural daylight for interior spaces, which can be beneficial for their visual comfort and wellbeing.
Aesthetics
In terms of aesthetics, with such a wide range of high quality architectural glass products now available, architects can push the limits of what is possible in their projects. There are so many possibilities and glass options to choose from, designers can meet the design intent, while keeping up with the latest design trends.
Oversized glazing and curved glass provide innovative possibilities for you to create something unique, in the size and shape you desire. From neutral to more colored glass, designers can create visually stunning, eye-catching facades. Architectural glass can also offer various levels of reflectivity, from low reflectivity to help integrate the building with its environment, to highly reflective glass that creates a bold statement or changes a building’s appearance depending on the time of day and the weather.
Environmnetal stewardship
Architectural glass is playing an increasingly important role in contributing to more sustainable, energy efficient buildings. Advanced glazing solutions can achieve very high levels of energy performance and help reduce operational carbon emissions.
We are working to continuously improve our products and are researching innovative methods to help minimize the impact that glazing solutions have on the environment and throughout the lifecycle.
To add to this, Guardian products can help customers achieve environmental building certifications such as LEED® or BREEAM® and reduce energy costs during a building’s lifetime.
Thermal insulation
Changing temperatures during the day, between different seasons and across different climates, make it difficult to maintain a comfortable indoor environment. Thermal insulating architectural glass welcomes natural light into a room, while helping to reduce the negative effects of cold outside temperatures. The glass reflects heat back into the room to keep inside.
Solar control
Solar control architectural glass can help reduce the ‘greenhouse effect’ that occurs in summer as rooms heat up to the point that they become unpleasant to be in. Indoor spaces can become brighter and cooler, while uncomfortable glare from the sun can be filtered out.
Our architectural glass products:
Our range of architectural glazing products can provide solar control, light transmission, and thermal insulation properties in a wide range of colors and appearances to help accommodate many applications.
Want to know more about architectural glazing?
Guardian Glass offers you a wealth of technical notes, tools and online learning to enhance your knowledge about glass and help you specify the most appropriate architectural glazing for your project. Connect to the Resource Hub to learn more!
Applications and uses of architectural glass
The applications for architectural glazing are wide ranging. From windows and curtain walls to roofs and skylights, in fact, any application where glazing is a physical barrier between the inside and outside of a building, architectural glass can be considered.
Curtain walls
Acting as a non-structural, outer covering of a building, a curtain wall made from architectural glazing can provide high natural daylight, thermal comfort while meeting the desired appearance (e.g. color, reflectivity, transparency).
Curved glazing
Architectural glass solutions have been developed that withstand the bending process without affecting the visual appearance of the glass. These solutions open new design possibilities while still providing the required thermal and solar performance to contribute to the energy efficiency of the building.
Spandrels
Designs that call for large areas of glass such as curtain walls or structural glazing often include spandrels, which is opaque glass that conceals structural building components such as columns, floors, HVAC systems and vents, preventing these from being visible from the exterior of the building. Depending on the design, the spandrel appearance may match the vision glass or complement it.
Bird friendly glazing
Each year, millions of birds accidentally fly into glass windows, doors and facades, with many of these collisions being fatal. This, and more stringent building requirements around the world, mean that architects are now looking for glass solutions that are safer and which help reduce the risk of bird collisions, while still providing the aesthetic and performance attributes that their projects require.
Some of our eye-catching projects made possible thanks to Guardian architectural glass
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Want to see more architectural projects made with architectural glass? Visit our project section
Why choose Guardian Glass?
Guardian Glass are experts in the creation and application of glass – constantly developing new glass technologies and techniques to deliver performance glass solutions all around the world. We work hand in hand with our partners and customers across the supply chain to help meet your design requirements. In other words, when it comes to glass, we help you see what’s possible.
Our architectural product solutions:
Need to compare the performance of our products? Visit our product section to search, compare and filter through our wide range of glass solutions.
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SunGuard® SNX 70+
Guardian SunGuard SNX 70+ low-E coated glass has an incredibly transparent, neutral aesthetic with low 14% exterior reflectivity. On Guardian UltraClear™ low-iron glass, it transmits 68% of visible light with a color rendering index of 94.5 – so that views become vivid and true to life, and interior and exterior environments feel connected. SunGuard SNX 70+ is also designed to help deliver a consistent reflected aesthetic whether glass is viewed directly or at an angle.
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SunGuard™ SNX 62/27
SunGuard SNX 62/27 low-E coated glass helps achieve energy-saving performance while balancing light and reflectivity. On a clear-over-clear double-glazed configuration, it delivers an optimum ratio of 62% visible light transmission with a solar heat gain coefficient of 0.26. This combo along with its neutral aesthetic and low outdoor reflectivity of 11% makes SNX 62/27 extremely versatile.
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SunGuard™ SNX 51/23
SunGuard SNX 51/23 low-E coated glass is an excellent choice whether aesthetics or performance is your goal. It offers a 0.23 solar heat gain coefficient and a high visible light transmission of 51% on a clear-over-clear double-glazed configuration. SNX 51/23 offers a low level of outdoor reflectivity of 14%.
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SunGuard™ SN 68
SunGuard SN 68 low-E coated glass provides a beautiful, natural look with balanced thermal performance and a 0.37 SHGC. On a clear-over-clear double-glazed configuration, its superb 68% visible light transmission with only 11% reflectivity can help illuminate interiors, expand views, and connect indoors and out.
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SunGuard™ SN 54
SunGuard SN 54 low-E coated glass strikes a balance between color neutrality and solar control – so your project can blend in or make a statement. Its 54% visible light transmittance and 14% outdoor reflectivity on a clear-over-clear double-glazed configuration is designed to help reduce glare and enhance beautiful views.
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SunGuard™ SNR 35
SunGuard SNR 35 low-E coated glass puts timeless beauty and advanced performance within reach. With 35% outdoor reflectivity and 33% visible light transmittance on a clear-over-clear double-glazed configuration, SNR 35 offers a timeless, crisp, silver look.
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SunGuard™ SNR 43
SunGuard SNR 43 low-E coated glass offers superior solar control to help exceed most energy requirements offering a 0.22 SHGC. Its 43% visible light transmittance and 28% outdoor reflectivity on a clear-over-clear IGU configuration creates bright reflectivity to achieve a beautiful, seamless façade and provide some privacy to the occupants.
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SunGuard™ SNR 50
SunGuard SNR 50 low-E coated glass offers elevated aesthetics and powerful performance to make your design come to life. Its 48% visible light transmittance and 26% reflectivity out on a clear-over-clear double-glazed configuration helps achieve a classic neutral, silver reflectivity on the exterior and bright, inviting interiors.
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SunGuard™ SNE 50
SunGuard SNE 50 low-E coated glass unites the best of all worlds with a medium level of outdoor reflectivity of 18%. On a clear-over-clear double-glazed configuration, SNE 50 coated glass provides 48% visible light transmittance and 0.25 solar heat gain coefficient – making it suitable for projects in many regions.
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SunGuard® HP Neutral 78/65
SunGuard® HP Neutral 78/65 is our commercial range of single silver coated glass, which not only offers high solar control but also design flexibility and good levels of thermal insulation.
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SunGuard® IS 20
SunGuard® IS 20 glass has a special thermal insulation coating that can improve a window’s energy performance. The glass is applied to the inside surface of double or triple glazed units, to help them comply with, and even exceed, energy efficiency codes.
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Guardian Bird1st™ UV
Guardian Bird1st™ UV is a highly innovative, bird-friendly glass that helps to prevent bird collisions with buildings. It uses a UV coating that has a striped pattern almost invisible to humans but visible to birds.
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Guardian Bird1st™ Etch
Guardian Bird1st™ Etch glass helps to prevent birds from colliding with buildings – by featuring striking and highly visible acid-etched patterns. With a choice of four distinct patterns the glass also offers enhanced design flexibility on façades and curtain walls.
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Whether you're drawing skyscrapers, remodeling homes or designing a new project, our team of glass experts is ready to help you find the right glass for your project.