Fairleigh Dickinson University in Florham Park and Madison, New Jersey, USA, offers students a graphic design degree with a special focus on motion graphics. With the new animation lab created as part of the renovation of the university building, NK architects created a special space: multifunctional, but above all open and transparent.
How was the fire protection implemented?
Thanks to Pilkington Pyrostop Line fire-resistant glass - installed in a fireframes ClearView system from Technical Glass Products, Snoqualmie, USA - all fire protection requirements were optimally met and the architects' ideas realised.
Planning requirement: It was to be an open space that encourages creativity and promotes collaboration. For this purpose, according to the ideas of the campus management and the architects' office, a formerly separate classroom and a computer laboratory, previously separated by a brick wall, were to be connected.
Billy Economou
Glass instead of bricks
"We wanted to replace the brick wall with a complete glass front and keep it transparent across its full width to create views into the lab. The fire protection system must secure the escape route through the corridor and therefore guarantee a resistance duration of 60 minutes," explains Elizabeth Birke, lead designer at NK architects.
In addition to providing reliable protection against fire and smoke, it should also act as a protective shield against the transmission of heat radiation to the side of the glazing away from the fire, i.e. thermally insulating towards the corridor.
What else was required of the fire-resistant glass?
In addition to the specific requirements for structural fire protection, the maximum desired transparency was also an important specification. "The fireframes ClearView system met our design requirements perfectly," Burke continues. "The glass frontage realised with this fire protection system now projects outwards at a unique angle, giving the animation lab that certain 'wow factor'."
Together with the fire-resistant fire protection glass Pilkington Pyrostop Line 60-603 made of Pilkington Optiwhite, it was possible to realise this aesthetic solution perfectly - without a visible edge seal system and without vertical framing between the individual panes as well as almost colourless transitions of the adjacent glasses.
A special feature is the very filigree butt joint of only 5 mm, which enables an unrestricted all-glass look. The glasses are held in a heat-resistant L-angle steel frame.
The new Animation Lab is a special "graphic space" that attracts the attention of passers-by. Its transparent glass front means that the work in the high-tech lab is now visible to everyone from the outside.
Billy Economou
