Pilkington Suncool™ glass gives the coolest views in Dubai

The 52-storey, 240-metre-tall hotel and residential building will install 50,000 square metres of Suncool™ One 30/21 solar control glass, allowing residents and guests to enjoy the stunning vistas of sweltering Dubai in cool, comfortable surroundings.

The glass features a state-of-the-art multi-layer coating that incorporates a microscopically thin layer of silver to help reduce heat transmission to just 21 per cent, while maintaining a neutral colour balance in the light passing through, maximising the views.

As well as creating a comfortable climate for users, the solar-control glazing will also significantly reduce the need for air conditioning, reducing costs and emissions.

The building is clad in an area of glass equivalent to 192 tennis courts, but because of the advanced magnetron sputtering technique used to apply the coating, just eight kilogrammes of silver was needed to cover the whole tower. That’s a piece of silver approximately the size of a laptop.

Pilkington Suncool™ One 30/21 was originally developed by Pilkington United Kingdom Limited, part of the NSG Group, for Intraco UAE, which has used the glass on a number of projects in the past.

Leo Pyrah, product manager at Pilkington said: “The view you will get from these hotel rooms and apartments is one of the major draws of this building, but clearly a fully glazed skyscraper in such a hot climate creates challenges from an energy management perspective.

“The bespoke coating we have developed alongside Intraco lets the developer and its customers enjoy the best of both worlds – a stunning view with much reduced solar heating.”