Pilkington has helped to create a three-story structural glass cube as part of a makeover and extension at Aldi’s UK headquarters.

Aldi’s £70m investment in the site has added new architectural features to the building’s exterior and created 14,000 sqm of new space. Pilkington has delivered the ‘glass cube’ and an external glazed canopy to form the entrance of the building.

The installation features transparent glass with a solar control coating, which reduces the amount of the sun’s energy that is able to enter the building. This helps to avoid excessive heat build-up in the space and helps to reduce the need for air conditioning during warm weather.

To create the appearance of unsupported, almost entirely transparent glass surfaces for the walls and roof, the designer specified the Pilkington Planar™ structural glazing system, featuring frameless double-glazed units bolted to a supporting steel frame.

Laminated glass is used extensively in the project in both the roof fins and the roof glazing. The roof fins consist of two sheets of 12mm-thick glass with a 1.52mm SentryGlas® interlayer while the cube roof glazing features laminated glass as part of the double-glazed units.

The glass used in the project was heat soaked to assure the client of the quality of the glass, and to minimise the risk of breakages once installed. Heat soaking is a process designed to expose faults in glass prior to installation.

While the roof fins are single span of glass, the height of the cube meant two sections were needed, and these are joined together by stainless steel spice plates. The fins themselves are then bolted into the main structure of the building using fin boxes, all of which are part of the extensive range of engineered components that make up the Pilkington Planar™ system.