The Würth Administration Building, on the shores of Lake Constance in Rorschach, Switzerland, features a SEFAR® Architecture Vision fabric interlayer that complements the beauty of the surrounding landscape. Its double skin of glass creates a distinctive aesthetic that alternately reflects and transmits natural light, offering an appealing building exterior and a truly unique workspace for employees.
Achieved by SEFAR’s Vision AL 140/70, a laminated metallic-gloss fabric interlayer, the system offers aesthetic and functional benefits to the building’s owner. Protection from lakeside winds and street noise means the building maintains an ideal temperature and a quiet, peaceful atmosphere, while reducing the energy loads and reducing glare to the occupants. With a cubic capacity of 144,400 m3 costing over 140 million to construct, no expense has been spared in creating a distinctive addition to the region’s cultural landscape.
Since 2013, the building has provided employment for over 250 staff, as well as offering teaching rooms, an exhibition area, and a congress hall for up to 500 people. Located by the lakeside and a nearby railway station, the Würth Administration Building brings an important economic boost to the St. Gallen-Bondensee, an area that attracts tourists from around the world.
“We are excited to bring SEFAR Architecture Vision to the Würth Administration Building. Our innovative fabric interlayer used within the curtain wall system has helped create a building that blends naturally into its surroundings while improving its energy efficiency,” says Peter Katcha, Director of North American Sales.
SEFAR Architecture Vision is a metal-coated precision fabric interlayer, typically laminated within glass or other transparent materials, to create unique aesthetic design possibilities in exterior glass facades, curtain walls, windows and interior and decorative glass partition wall systems.
SEFAR Vision fabrics can also be printable with UV-stabilized inks to produce any Pantone color, patterns, and other design effects without the design reading through to the interior. With its unique metal coatings and mesh configurations, Vision improves the thermal insulating qualities for reducing solar heat gain while allowing for a reduced level of visual light transmission and reducing glare.
SEFAR Architecture Vision fabrics are available in six fabric density configurations and each can be coated with 3 different metal coatings – Aluminum, Chrome, and Titanium – or be printed on to achieve any color or pattern, ultimately providing unlimited combinations for Vision products. They feature plain or twill weaves in a variety of aperture percentages (25-70%) and light transmission percentages (18-60%).
In addition to SEFAR Architecture, members of the project team included architect Annette Gigon/Mike Guyer Architects, Zurich, Switzerland, glass manufacturer Glas Trösch AG, St. Gallen, Switzerland, interlayer manufacturer DuPont de Nemours GmbH, Neu-Isenburg, Germany, and installer construction manager Walter Dietsche Baumanagement AG, Chur, Switzerland.
