Rough stone on filigree glass; Digitally-printed glasses in new building of the Folkwang Library Essen

The Folkwang University of Arts has one of the largest musicological collections nationwide. In September 2012, the previously dispersed collection was gathered together in a new building on the historic campus of the Folkwang University in Essen-Werden based on the design of the architect Max Dudler.       

To protect from excessive exposure to light radiation, an unusual solution was developed: Digitally-printed glasses in a stone optic cover the entire façade. The CLIMAplusSECURIT partners Trienes and Thermoglas produced 600 plates for this with various motives.

The building is an approximately 32 metre-long and 13 metre-high cube. But the well-proportioned measures of this new building are not the primary eye-catcher, but rather it is the façade: It looks like an attractive, patterned stone cover, however, it is glass. And that for a good reason: a particularly sensitive and also challenging theme for library buildings is the light. Although both the readers and the books need light, they simultaneously cannot stand intensive radiation.

Use was made of large-sized close-ups of a quarry which show the untrimmed stone on a scale of 1:1.

The design of the façade was developed by the CLIMAplusSECURIT partners, Glas Trienes and Thermoglas Niederrhein in cooperation with the architects’ Berlin office, WIGGER Fenster und Fassaden GmbH and the photographer Stefan Müller.

Digital printing on glass has the advantage that as a result a two-sided view of the motifs is possible and the reproduction is convincing from both near and far.

SAINT-GOBAIN GLASS DEUTSCHLAND GMBH
Viktoriaallee 3-5 • D-52066 Aachen
Tel. +49 (0)2 41 / 5 16-28 74 • Fax +49 (0)2 41 / 5 16-22 24
Press Contact: Janina Wotske