Glass curtain wall has distinctive features in the modern buildings today

Nowadays, a non-loadbearing curtain wall allows architects to give a building an attractive and contemporary fa?ade of aluminium and glass. Unlike traditional office spaces with solid walls, modern offices are using glass which opens up offices to more collaboration and natural light. In most cases, when glass curtain walls replaced masonry construction in commercial buildings, the depth and reach of light penetration improved, reducing the need for artificial lighting and consequently, cutting down on lighting bills. Additionally, windowless areas toward the middle of the floor became appealing and usable workspaces.

Specifically speaking, curtain wall is a non-load bearing exterior wall that hangs off the structure like a curtain which is typically attached to the building’s floor slabs. A curtain wall does not carry any dead load weight imposed by the building and therefore only has to support its own weight. The wall transfers wind loads onto the main building structure through connections to the building’s columns and floors. In modern commercial buildings, glass curtain walls replace the existing solid walls and make an otherwise ordinary room into something spectacular. Especially aluminium curtain wall can effortlessly blur the divide between in-and outside, allowing your living spaces to be filled with panoramic views and natural light.

In most cases, glass curtain wall provides an attractive building envelope, but it is generally regarded as unsustainable because of the high energy needed to maintain thermal comfort. For example, in most of office buildings, continuous heating, ventilation and air conditioning are needed in order to maintain thermal comfort within the buildings and this has high energy consumption. The increasing use of unitized curtain wall systems with double glazing instead of stick-built systems with single glazing improves the sustainability of the cladding through less material wastage and better energy efficiency. Meanwhile, environmental sustainability is improved when factors such as climate, the orientation of glazed fa?ades, solar control, ventilation and the interior building layout are considered. Any assessment of glass curtain wall sustainability needs to consider the economic and social aspects as well as the environmental aspects such as energy use.

In recent years, with constant development in science and technology, glass curtain walls are finding increasingly more applications and their structures are also experiencing great changes. Glass curtain walls have developed from singular aluminum alloy frame glass curtain walls to serialized frameless glass curtain walls, including hanger type, hanger plus spider-fitting type and fully spider fitting type.