The magnificent bank buildings in Belfast are now home to the Irish fashion giant Primark, which has owned the five-storey ensemble of buildings since 1979 and was listed in 1980. The buildings have already withstood two fires. The most recent fire occurred in 2018 and completely damaged the supporting structure and the entire timber construction.
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A reconstruction based on the historical model began, and glass supplier IMC Glass supplied a total of 300 Slim-Glaze elements to replace the previous single-glazed window panes. These were manufactured according to the historical model and installed from the third floor upwards. In order to achieve the very good Ug-values of up to 1.1 W/(m²K) for thin double glazing, the IG units are filled exclusively with xenon or krypton.
Which spacer bar was used?
The Super Spacer Heritage from Edgetech was used, a flexible spacer for the warm edge that was specially developed for double glazing in renovation projects. This can also be used in frames with extremely low glass inserts without being noticeable due to its low height of 3 millimetres.
"This very slim double glazing makes it possible to maintain the original style with excellent thermal efficiency. With a unit thickness of just 14 millimetres, they achieve a Ug value of 1.2 W/m²K," explains Aaron McCreanor, Managing Director of IMC Glass. "The difficulty in manufacturing insulating glass with such a thin glass structure is ensuring gas tightness over a long period of time and preventing condensation from forming in the space between the panes."
