Function and examples

Exterior protective glazings are at the moment the most acceptable measures for historic church windows. Here we look after the
windows without working on the glass substance itself.

The protective glazing offers corrosion prevention as well as weather protection, soiling and vandalism. It also limits the loss of heat in
the building. The protection of the original is more important therefor you have to accept visual reduction.

In some cases you could see that the fitting of a protective glazing couldn't prevent the steam up at the glass surface, and in some
cases it was even furthered by the fitting. Through that the destruction of glass paintings was faster. The construction of the support
system and the ventilating of the gap between the new glazing and the old painting are necessary for the efficiency.

Illustration of the rain water channel where the water is flowing out.

Foto de un canalón por el cual sale al exterior el agua de condensación del acristalamiento de protección.


Design possibilities for exterior protective glazing:

The picture shows examples where several design possibilities for protective glazing are shown. Here different kinds of glass like
float glass or ripple glass etc. These are only a few examples. There are many more. It's like the example of the restoration, there no
patent remedy, and you have to find an individual solution for every single project.

Fotovoltaic in connection with glass design

18 th. October 2002 was the first opening of the photovolatic window in connection with glass design. In cooperation with the company Saint Gobain Solar, Aachen and the artist Klaus Jansen we put the first window into service, which stores the electricity and shows it as light object.

Left: Interior view with light object.

Middle: Exterior view by daylight.

Right: vExterior view by night, the colour effect is shown through the light object.

Working on this project, we found a big support in the church and other institution areas, which tackle with the problems of the generation of energy. More than 50 architects and clients for whom a building is being built have listend to the speech of Mr. Dr. Dr. Hermann Scheer (member of the Lower House of Parliament, owner of the alternative Nobel Prize, "hero of the green century" and president of Eurosolar) and have discussed about the topic of energies and have been astonished how many possibilities of photovoltaic exsist.

A book has been published about this topic. It contains the speech of Mr. Dr. Dr. Scheer and a welcoming speech of Mr. Dr. Fürst, Bishop of Rottenburg and other interesting articles.

Kindergarden Dresden

Facade designd with photovoltaic in connection with glass design.

Left: Interior view, right: Exterior view

Design: Sabine Rentzsch, Dresden