University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge – Cambridge, UK

Large-size Glass Art with Love of Detail: Artwork on 51 glass units

Those who will travel from London to Cambridge by train, will see the future landmark of the city: the tower of the Assessment Centre of the University of Cambridge. With its colorful printed glass, the envelope will be another highlight of the university city. The artisitcally designed laminates make the building an outstanding construction project. It is based on a question by the artist couple Vong Phaophanit and Claire Oboussier: "What is knowledge?". The result is a strong statement for the transnational and intercultural character of the nonprofit education institution, and also for sedak's glass competence.

sedak printed 476sqm of glass with the multilingual answers to the artists' question as well as with selected text passages of works by famous authors defining "knowledge". The lines are applied in strong orange and blue shades. Although they overlap, they are still perfectly legible thanks to the precise ceramic-ink digital printer. It allows sedak to print even the thinnest lines with a resolution of 1024 dpi. The smallest letters are only 6mm high. The ceramic inks are resistant to scratches and UV radiation which makes a permanent color brilliance possible.

For the 39-meter high office tower, sedak delivered a total of 36 orange printed double laminates for the tower, and 15 blue printed sedak isosun® IGUs for the façade of the so called "link" connecting the two main building complexes.

Owner

University of Cambridge

Architect

Eric Parry Architect

Scope of sedak

36 double laminates
– 10mm heat-strengthened glass with SG interlayer
– up to 4m x 2.45m

15 sedak isosun® IGUs
– out of heat-strengthened glass with 8mm Edgetech spacer
– ceramic-ink digital print
– up to 4.58m x 1.98m

 

Photo credits: Claire Oboussier and Vong Phaophanit