The 122 Waterloo Street development in the centre of Glasgow offers its occupants floor-to-ceiling glazing throughout, with almost uninterrupted views thanks to high-performance glass coatings from Pilkington United Kingdom Limited.

And, impressively, the landmark building will also be one of the most energy efficient buildings in Scotland.

The scheme has been certified BREEAM Excellent, and achieved an ‘A’ rated Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), the latter based on a detailed assessment of the building’s energy performance. The glazing helps to minimise this by reducing energy emitted from the building, as well as the heating effect of the sun, both of which can make maintaining a comfortable interior climate more energy-intensive.

The scale of the building and the large area of glass used means that excessive radiation of heat from the building could lead to rapid heat loss during colder conditions, requiring an increase in heating to keep the interior warm.

To mitigate this effect, the glazing features a Pilkington Optitherm™ S1 Plus low-emissivity coating which reflects radiated heat back into the building.

The second issue that can affect buildings where most of the envelope is glazed is excessive heat build-up when the sun is shining directly into the interior. This can present a challenge for building managers, often requiring high levels of energy-intensive air conditioning.

To combat this, a solar-control coating has been used, reducing the amount of heat energy that is able to enter the building while maintaining high levels of transparency.

The clarity of the glazing was further improved by the use of Pilkington Optiwhite™ true low-iron glazing throughout, which significantly reduces the slight green tint that is inherent in standard float glass.

On the ground floor, Pilkington Optilam™ laminated glazing was used to provide protection against manual attack and increase the security of the building.