DuPont: Art and light to kindergarten renovation project in Germany

Small pupils can play safely in the light-filled mezzanine or gallery of the newly renovated Kindergarten St Hildegard in Dachau, Germany because a 14 m2 central light well positioned 2.6 m above ground level is protected with an attractive, laminated glass balustrade of 1.5 m in height and 7.5 m in length incorporating ‘Seeds of the Future’, a composition in DuPont SentryGlas Expressions decorative laminated glass.The renovation project was completed in July 2003 by architects Macro Architekten of Munich. Macro Architekten is the first architectural firm to incorporate DuPontÔ SentryGlasÒ Expressions decorative interlayer for laminated glass in a completed project in Europe.

The balustrade, which was laminated by Flachglas Wernberg GmbH Germany with the help of glass art studio Mago-Glas Studio of Pfreimd, Germany incorporates a photograph by Andreas Riedmiller of elm tree seeds.

The architects call the SentryGlas Expressions composition ‘Seeds of the Future’ because of the surrounding milieu of children and educational growth. The ‘nature’ theme was also chosen because of a tie-in with the school’s patron, St Hildegard of Bingen, a medieval sage and well-known early writer on the subject of homeopathic medicine.

The kindergarten headmistress, Frau Böhme, said: “It’s extremely good for the children to be exposed to this wonderful work of art, this ‘living design’ which, we can explain to them, relates to seeds, nature and growth. Thanks to to the new glass façade and light well the kindergarten is much brighter and more cheerful inside – and because the balustrade glass is laminated, the children can play alongside it safely.”

Key architectural feature
The 4.5 x 3 m light well and its decorative laminated glass balustrade incorporating SentryGlasÒ ExpressionsÔ technology is a key architectural feature of the refurbishment of this 1960s building and its transformation into a modern kindergarten for three to six year-old children.

According to Macro Architekten partner Franz Kisters, his firm wanted to bring more natural daylight into the kindergarten, especially between the ground and first floors. An important part of the plan was to create a light well between the first and second floors in the place where a storage cupboard used to be situated, on the first floor.

He commented: “This is a much better use of the space than a cupboard! The light well with its decorative glass balustrade throws a lovely effect of shadowing down onto the entry hall on the ground floor as the light showers down through the glass.

“In tandem with a new laminated glass façade for the kindergarten, supplied by Wirth of Mingkofen near Munich, the decorative glass balustrade helps to achieve our goal of opening up the kindergarten, make it more transparent from the street outside and full of daylight in the interior.”

Kisters said his firm is planning to provide night illumination of the light well and balustrade. Thanks to the transparent glass façade, ‘Seeds of the Future’ looks beautiful from the street in the evenings and the architects say they hope it will become a new Dachau city landmark.

Macro’s renovation of the Kindergarten St Hildegard follows a worldwide architectural trend to bring more natural daylight into schools. John P. Eberhard FAIA, Chairman of the Washington-based Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, recently said: “Our research is already pointing to the fact that, the more light that is allowed into the building, the better the people within the building feel – whether it’s a school, a hospital, a church or an office building.”

“Surprisingly easy to implement”, says architect
Kisters said that DuPontÔ SentryGlasÒ ExpressionsÔ technology is “surprisingly easy” to implement. He continued: “Early on in the project planning we wanted to make the glass balustrade look attractive and fun for the sake of the children. We did not know about ExpressionsÔ technology at that point so we assumed we would have to use silk screening.

“Paul Gora of Maga-Glas Studio told us about SentryGlasÒ ExpressionsÔ after he read about it in an architectural glass magazine and we were delighted because this turned out to be a much quicker, easier, controllable and cost-effective solution for customized designs such as ours.”

The front-end costs of developing screen prints, producing a sample and adjusting the screens, re-proofing etc. using the silk screen process are significantly higher compared to making a one-time print for decorative glass using SentryGlasÒ ExpressionsÔ technology.

Architect Kisters continued: “Specifically, after obtaining copyright permission from the photographer we simply scanned the page of an image bank catalogue reproduction of his photo using a desktop scanner. We then sent the 150 pixels per inch (ppi) resolution scans on two CDs to DuPont who printed the images onto PVB and sent Maga-Glas two sample options of the finished result in laminated glass, one with a translucent background and one with a rather more opaque background.

“The whole process, from order to installation of the balustrade, took about six weeks and we can confirm that compared to silk screen printing, the process for our particular job was much simpler and cost substantially less (a factor of 1:10)! We could not be more pleased with the results!”

“Outstanding quality” says glass laminator
Macro Architekten used a tiled set of seven 1 x 1.6 m panels of laminated safety glass with ExpressionsÔ decorative glass interlayer. Flachglas quality manager, Josef Failer confirmed that the balustrade consists of one inner layer of 6 mm annealed glass with a 1.52 mm layer of SentryGlasÒ ExpressionsÔ PVB laminate and a 0.38 mm layer of Soft White ButaciteÒ PVB followed by a 8 mm annealed glass outer layer.

Failer said that to produce the balustrade using screen-printing would have been “ten times more expensive because you would have needed so many repeat screens and you would have had to use four or five films. Plus, you would not have been able to see the image digitally before it was installed. We are very pleased with this new technology”.

He continued: “SentryGlasÒ ExpressionsÔ technology is practical and relatively simple to use. On receipt of the digital images DuPont takes care of printing the PVB and producing the samples for the architect’s approval. We simply had to laminate the PVB and we can attest that the overall quality is outstanding – on the same level as standard laminated safety glass.”

DuPont™ SentryGlas® Expressions™ is borne of DuPont’s in-depth knowledge of the science of materials, production processes for laminated glass interlayers, and digital inkjet printing and inks. Thanks to DuPont™ SentryGlas® Expressions™ decorative interlayers, architects and designers now have access to a new instrument of superior quality and versatility for decorating panels, doors, skylights, gazebos, partition walls, etc., which allows them to achieve a faithful reproduction of any image: paintings, photographs, commercial logos, anything possible or imaginable. All this plus the significant benefits offered by laminated glass: safety, burglar-proofing, excellent weather resistance, UV filtering, noise abatement and low heat absorption from sunlight.

DuPont () is a science company. Founded in 1802 in Wilmington (Delaware, USA), DuPont puts science to work by solving problems and creating solutions that make people's lives better, safer and easier. Operating in more than 70 countries, the company offers a wide range of products and services to markets including agriculture, nutrition, electronics, communications, safety and protection, home and construction, transportation and apparel.

DuPont is a leading supplier of science-based materials, products and technologies to the design community worldwide. About 75 percent of the most used commercial polymer-based materials have been invented by DuPont or are the result of research and development activities done by DuPont.