World firsts in stylish and innovative interiors from Michael Young using DuPont™ SentryGlas® Expressions™ and DuPont™ Corian® for high-profile aesthetic surgery clinic in Taiwan

The refit was completed by well-known Young Brit designer Michael Young, his artist wife Katrin Pétursdottir Young and their Taiwan-based team in February 2005.True to form, Young’s team of architects and designers used these two DuPont Performance Materials in some new unique new ways that are world ‘firsts’.

Young’s team used a design in purple and blue hues by Icelandic artist Katrin Pétursdottir Young as the basis to construct a relatively large floor surface (95 m2), doors, interior walls and self-standing partition walls made of laminated glass incorporating SentryGlas® Expressions™ decorative glass technology at the clinic’s reception. Some of the glass partition walls have a purple color gradient on a mirrored backing, in one of the first time that color gradients and mirrors have been used with the decorative glass technology.

This is the first time worldwide that SentryGlas® Expressions™ technology has been used for a laminated glass floor. Katrin Pétursdottir Young commented: “We are breaking new design boundaries here! The laminated floor tiles are pretty big (1.5 x 1.5 m) demanding a massive scale-up of the original artwork. Thanks to SentryGlas® Expressions™ technology, the quality of reproduction of the final product is at very high resolution - 300 dpi - even after such a large scale-up. I do not know of any other technology to reproduce artwork so accurately for large glass surfaces at an affordable cost!”

Laminated glass incorporating SentryGlas® Expressions™ decorative glass technology was also for glass partitions and doors at the clinic, testing various gentle color gradients on a mirrored backing that would make discreet partitions between different meeting rooms. Michael Young commented: “This is the first time that we know of that mirrors have been used in laminated glass design construction. Heat lamination on mirrors usually results in the mirror film melting but thanks to SentryGlas® Expressions™ technology, laminated glass and mirrors can now be used in unison. This is an exciting development that expands the palette of decorative laminated glass options for architects and interior designers.” The glass laminator for this project was Stanley Glass of Taipei City.

Alberto Puchetti, lead architect with Michael Young’s Taipei office, said: “The combination of colorful blues and purples used in Katrin’s design for the laminated glass surfaces and contrasting Corian® 12 mm walls (in Glacier White colour) made using the new Computer Numeric Control (CNC) milling process works well. Laminated glass and Corian® are also easy to clean, making them both highly suitable for use in a clinical or hospital setting.”

Michael Young was enthusiastic about the use of Corian® in the clinic’s refit. He said: “Working with Corian® adds a new dimension to traditional surfaces – it allows us to work with a new design freedom; so much so that Corian® really feels like a 3D material to me.” Corian® can be formed into virtually any shape or design that a designer can master-mind, whether it’s a softly-rounded ergonomic table corner, an intricately-carved, decorative pillar or a 20-foot long reception desk.

Young continued: “Using Corian® in a medical environment gave us the opportunity to use the solid surface material to its full advantage! As well as its outstanding aesthetic properties, cleanliness is vitally important in laboratories. Because it is non-porous and highly durable, Corian® is ideal for use in healthcare clinics, while blending in well with other new design materials such as SentryGlas® Expressions™ decorative laminated glass technology. The combination of these two materials enhances the futuristic image of Dr Chan’s refurbished clinic while creating a more pleasant and efficient working environment.

“Another important reason we wanted to use Corian® in the clinic was introduction of new digital techniques for the solid surface such as Computer Numeric Controlling (CNC) milling – a sort of digital carving that allows custom patterns - and luminosity. We believe that this is the first time that CNC milling has been used with Corian® in the Asia Pacific region.

“As well as the walls of the main lobby, we used Corian® for all the door frames and the doors themselves; even the door thresholds are made of Corian®. The door modules include the insertion of under-lighting to show off Corian® Glacier White to its best aesthetic and luminous effect, which I believe is another world first!” Corian® has a unique translucency that gives the material an extra dimension when light is added, and makes it an ideal choice for lighting designs.

Young added: “We used Corian® on all of the clinic’s cabinets, in the operating room wall rails boards or wall rails and in the skirting boards / wall rails in the clinic’s corridors. We also used Corian® in the kitchen and bathroom surfaces – even for picture frames throughout the clinic! We used CNC Corian® for table top inserts in the consultation room; these are also back-lit, and therefore very luminous and attractive.” The doors, sills and wall rails were are out of 6-mm thick Corian® to enhance translucency, while the other applications listed use 12 mm-thicknesses of the solid surface material.

DuPont™ SentryGlas® Expressions™ is a revolutionary new way for designers and artists to harness digital technologies to produce a wide range of decorative glass results, using a proprietary process developed by DuPont that performs inkjet printing directly onto a special grade of Butacite® PVB interlayer, the interlayer used to make laminated safety glass. The result is high-quality imagery and design textures in safety glass. Design-to-production times are quick. Digital technology increases design flexibility, customization potential and image tone control.

SentryGlas® Expressions™ technology (dupont.safetyglass.com) enables textures, company logos and images to be incorporated into a range of architectural glass applications such as entry doors, overhead glazing, balustrades and office partitions. Images are embedded inside the laminated glass, safe from harm. Users benefit from easy-care visual aesthetics along with the standard benefits of laminated glass including safety, security, UV protection, noise reduction and solar/thermal control.

Invented by Research & Development laboratories of DuPont and produced only by DuPont, Corian® (corian.com) is used in a wide range of residential, commercial, furniture and specialty applications. It is a non-porous solid surface material that is stain-resistant, easy to clean, durable, renewable, repairable and recyclable. Available in about 100 standard colours, Corian® can be shaped into virtually any conceivable design. Scratches are easily removed without marring its beauty and uniformity of colour.

Corian® is especially useful in hospitality and healthcare facilities because of its seamless nature, NSF/ANSI 51 certification for food contact and Class 1 (A) fire rating. Its hygienic performances have been certified also by German LGA QualiTest GmbH indipendent organization (tests done by LGA QualiTest GmbH showed the performances of Corian® were superior to those of many conventional materials).