Guardian SunGuard® Solar Glass Provides Butterflies a Safe Haven

That’s why they turned to Guardian Industries’ Glass Group in Europe, a leading manufacturer of high-quality commercial, residential, interior and automotive glass products, to provide the nearly 1,500 pieces of different-sized glass needed during construction.Specifically, they selected Guardian SunGuard® SNX 60/28, which lets 60% of sunlight in but keeps out 72% of the sun’s heat – allowing the temperature inside the building to be precisely regulated. The SunGuard eXtra selective (SNX) range is the highest performing solar protective glass Guardian has to offer. This glass also offers excellent aesthetics, due to its neutral transparent colour and its low reflection.

Ensuring a constant tropical climate of 26 °C and 80% humidity inside the glass-covered building was a particular challenge in Konya, which has a continental climate with large temperature swings between the winter and summer months. The construction area covered 380,000 square meters.

The museum, which opened in July 2015, features Europe's biggest butterfly flight zone of 1,600 square meters. Some 6,000 butterflies of 15 species and 20,000 tropical plants of 98 species live in the museum.

Guardian SunGuard glass not only helps to protect this rare and valuable plant and animal life, but it also makes for a more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly building. The Konya museum project received LEED Silver certification, making it the first museum in Turkey to be so recognised. (LEED is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.)

SunGuard products can help buildings earn LEED points needed to receive the much-coveted certification.

The Konya Selçuklu Muncipality worked with the international architectural and planning firm Arup on this project and hired the Akçim-Evçağ business partnership to handle the actual construction.

About Guardian Industries Corp.:

Guardian is a diversified global manufacturing company headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, with leading positions in float glass and fabricated glass products for commercial, residential and transportation applications; automotive trim; and the distribution of building products. Through its research and development centers (Science & Technology Center for glass and Advanced Development Center for automotive), Guardian is at the forefront of innovation. Its automotive trim group, SRG Global, is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of advanced, high value coatings on plastics. Guardian, its subsidiaries and affiliates employ 17,000 people and operate facilities throughout North America, Europe, South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Visit www.guardian.com.