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A new point-fixed façade system, based around the unique attributes of DuPont™ SentryGlas® Plus structural interlayer, has been designed and patented by leading curtain wall and cladding specialist Teleya of Italy. Described as a totally new, very minimalist and very transparent façade concept, its first installation is at a Conad hypermarket in Cesena, north-eastern Italy, which was completed at the end of 2006.

The design of the system mainly entrusts the load transmission to the structural performance of SentryGlas® Plus which, thanks to its ability to adhere directly to metal, plays a fundamental role in supporting the glass and transferring the loads to very minimalist stainless steel point-fixed devices. The main architectural advantages of this innovative design principle are that the fixings themselves are very small and that the exterior surface of the façade is continuous because the outer glass is not cluttered with holes or clamps. For architects and building owners this means lower maintenance and enhanced aesthetics. High post-breakage safety and security are further important benefits of the system. DuPont’s structural interlayer is essential to the patented new point-fixed system because of its significant stiffness, structural strength and post-breakage stability.

The new construction principle involved a three-year collaboration between Teleya DuPont and Professor Gianni Royer Carfagni of the University of Parma. The decision was then made to showcase it on two types of façades in a retail context.

“The first, very flexible façade is fixed to a single vertical cable, thus avoiding the usual network of cables, typical of tensile structures. It is conceived as a large, flexible glass sail, giving an overall architectural aesthetic of extreme lightness,” explains marketing and R&D manger of Teleya, Fabio Frambati. “The second façade, at the other end of the corridor, is a stiffer structure and features vertical steel mullions. This was to demonstrate that our patented fixing system using SentryGlas® Plus works for both types of façade – although it could also be used for roofs, balustrades and other applications.”

The architect responsible for the Conad hypermarket project, Delio Corbara, was very pleased when Teleya presented me with this totally new, very minimalist, very transparent façade concept. The end façades are really beautiful in that they let this large, enclosed hypermarket ‘breathe’; when crossing the corridor, shoppers have wonderful, uninterrupted views of the neighboring fields and countryside on one end and views going down towards the sea on the other end. The façades really ‘let the
outside in’ to the hypermarket,” he commented.