New Directions in Contemporary Architectural Glass from Sculptural Glass Doors

About Clearcast Glass

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	<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><!-- InstanceBegin template="/Templates/text_scroll.dwt" codeOutsideHTMLIsLocked="false" --> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="doctitle" --> <title>New Directions in Contemporary Architectural Glass from Sculptural Glass Doors</title> <!-- InstanceEndEditable --> <style type="text/css"> <!-- body,td,th { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; color: #000033; line-height: 1.5em; padding-left: 10px; text-align: left; } body { background-color: #E3EAEC; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; } a:link { color: #000066; } a:visited { color: #000066; } a:hover { color: #000066; } a:active { color: #000066; } #divCopyright { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9px; color: #000033; background-color: #E3EAEC text-decoration: none;a font-weight: normal; .style1 {font-size: 9px; text-decoration: none; } .style1 {font-size: 9px} --> </style> <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="head" --> <!-- InstanceEndEditable --> </head> <body> <table width="525" border="0" align="left" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="EditRegion3" --> <p align="left" class="mainbody"> <br><strong>About ClearCast Glass</strong></p> <p align="justify" class="mainbody"><img src="../../images/ezpages/about_clearcast/clearcast.gif" width="242" height="160" align="right" /> ClearCast™ Glass is a new category in the ever expanding world of specialty architectural glass. There are a lot of things you can do with a sheet of glass, but few processes result in such an array of visual effects and practical benefits. </p> <p class="mainbody">Bill McColl was granted a U.S. utility patent for ClearCast Glass. This kind of thing happens occasionally when a designer / craftsman spends a lot of time alone in the studio and really gets into his work. This innovation is patented in two ways: first, as a novel article of manufacture; and second, as an improved insulating glass assembly based on the functional advantages of ClearCast™ Glass. </p> <p class="mainbody">This is an evolutionary building product. ClearCast Glass can be seen as a contemporary extension of a long tradition in specialty architectural glass. Impressed graphic lines carry the legacy of lead lines in stained glass. Bands of optical refraction along the impressed lines visually recall the cut areas in beveled glass. The array of curved forms within one sheet of glass is a descendant of conventional bent glass. Simple grid and patterned building blocks of ClearCast Glass rejuvenate the concept of glass block. Beyond the visual fireworks, superior strength and thermal performance mark ClearCast Glass as a unique decorative safety glass with a wide array of potential architectural applications. </p> <p class="mainbody">In the specialized field of architectural cast glass, ClearCast Glass is distinguished by its high degree of transparency and a deep, smooth, seductive texture. But it is the pairing of dynamic aesthetic qualities with superior functional performance that really vaults this innovation into a new category of specialty architectural glass. </p> <p class="mainbody">What this means for the door owner is that their Sculptural Glass Door is not only beautiful, but smart, too. </p> <p class="mainbody"><strong>Thermal Performance </strong>is enhanced by additional air space created in compartmentalized hollows within the unique internal geometry of a ClearCast Glass IG unit. This can result in more than double the amount of insulating air space compared to an equivalent spacer sized IG unit. Low-E coatings may be incorporated into a ClearCast insulating glass unit for exceptional thermal performance. The energy cost of the glass forming process may be more than offset by life cycle energy savings, creating a net energy gain over the life of the product. It's easy being green with ClearCast Glass. </p> <p class="mainbody"><strong>Acoustical Performance:</strong> Increased air space has a positive effect on reducing sound transmission levels. Deeply textured exterior surfaces and differing vibratory rates for each panel of glass in an insulating unit also have a positive effect. A laminated glass may be used as the inside lite for superior acoustical privacy.</p> <p class="mainbody"><strong>Strength and Safety:</strong> The ClearCast Glass used in your Sculptural Glass Door is itself classified as a safety glass. ClearCast Glass is fully tempered and meets architectural safety standards (ANSI Z97.1 and 16 CFR 1201) for tempered glass products. Tempered glass is generally considered to be about 4 times stronger than ordinary annealed glass. Additionally, convex forms have inherent structural characteristics that may further enhance the strength and impact resistance of a tempered ClearCast Glass panel. </p> <p class="mainbody"><strong>Psychological Comfort:</strong> ClearCast Glass presents a strong, robust front to the outside world. From an interior point of view, there is a feeling of security and protection from the external environment. Traditional glass lites divided by wood muntins are appreciated because the division of glazed areas into smaller units provides human scale and increases the comforting and protective sense of enclosure. ClearCast Glass provides for these human needs in a new way, enhancing a person's psychological comfort and sense of security.</p> <p class="mainbody">Smart performance and practical benefits are at the functional core of ClearCast Glass. An array of dynamic visual properties completes the total package. </p> <p class="mainbody"><strong>Sculptural Texture:</strong> Our forming process produces a light bending, deep relief glass panel of great clarity, a composition of swelling curved forms, all within a single sheet of glass. This is pure glass, nothing added but the beauty of form. Integrated with this large-scale textural relief, a linear graphic element is embedded in the glass, forming the structural bones of the sculptural relief.</p> <p class="mainbody"><strong><img src="../../images/ezpages/about_clearcast/CLCdeer1.gif" width="242" height="160" align="right" />Optical Phenomena:</strong> Bands of optical distortion, created by the stretching of the glass in the forming process, run parallel to the impressed graphic lines. They enliven the glass and involve the viewer in a kinetic relationship with the glass surface and the environment beyond.</p> <p class="mainbody"><strong>Reflective Qualities:</strong> ClearCast Glass accentuates the reflective qualities of glass. An up close view of a ClearCast Glass sculptural surface offers a visual "fun house" of environmentally reflective effects. From a distance, ClearCast Glass presents an array of reflective highlights that act as a visual barrier, effectively increasing daytime privacy levels for a given opening. </p> <p class="mainbody"><strong> <img src="../../images/ezpages/about_clearcast/clearcast2.gif" width="242" height="160" align="right" /> Light and Space Effects:</strong> ClearCast Glass panels create delightful atmospheric effects when transmitted light rays are bent through the various glass curvatures of each design. The sculptural forms of the glass are extended into interior spaces by interference patterns which create a subtle, shifting composition of light in space. Direct rays of sunlight cast rippled patterns onto nearby interior surfaces, making invisible light visible. </p> <p class="mainbody"><strong>Curb Appeal:</strong> ClearCast Glass can be a powerful means of articulating a building facade. The pattern of reflective highlights and shadows reads well at a distance. The convex forms seem filled, and convey a sense of emergence, expansion, and strength. Coordinated night lighting can heighten the drama. </p> <p class="mainbody"><strong>A Different Point Of View:</strong> ClearCast Glass architectural design elements create a new kind of inside/outside dialog between an interior space and its surroundings. The sculptural glass forms have a strong presence from the outside, yet act as quiet guests from an interior point of view, rewarding attention, but not demanding it. Exterior visionscapes are clearly present, but are filtered and slightly deconstructed in a visual sense. </p> <p class="mainbody">All of these wonderful qualities are innate in the material, integral in the expression, all part of the character of ClearCast Glass. There is nothing added, nothing faux, no one material pretending to be another. As a design medium, ClearCast Glass offers the possibility of the melding of art and function in glass, the signature architectural building material of our time.</p> <p align="center" class="mainbody"><strong>* * * * *</strong></p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt'>Note: The following might be a little out of place here in our "Door Store", but hey, it's the world wide web and everyone has a soapbox. This section is directed more to people involved in the glass industry, from fellow designers and craftspeople to commercial fabricators.</p> <p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b></b></p> <p class=MsoNormal><b>A Vision <span class=GramE>For</span> The Future</b> </p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt'>We have twin goals at Sculptural Glass Doors Inc. The first goal is immediate: to create high quality, well designed, highly functional design elements for architectural applications. We aspire to gradually build the most unique and exciting collection of doors available anywhere. The second goal is long term and universal in scope: to extend the language of glass in Architecture by broadening the reach and impact of ClearCast™ Glass.</p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt'>We are pioneering a new glass technology that could potentially have a significant impact on our built environment. We are working on the frontier of a long tradition of glass in architecture, and it is our path and joy to continue to explore and develop techniques and processes that will expand the visual language of ClearCast Glass.</p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt'>A real advantage for wider commercial use of ClearCast Glass is its capacity to incorporate technological advances such as Low-E and other innovative coatings and high performance glass formulations. Degrees of transparency and translucency can be fine-tuned with easily integrated applications of ceramic frit or sandblast. Of special interest for ClearCast Glass are gases and clear gels with high insulation values which may be placed in the expanded air space of a ClearCast Glass insulating unit. </p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt'>In the future, as window/walls are seen as controllable membranes for the efficient manipulation of heat and light, and as their functional benefits surpass other materials, building skins will utilize more and more glass as a functional necessity. Building designers will seek more ways to use all the elements of design - color, form, line, and texture - to enliven the exteriors of glass skinned buildings. </p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt'>Clearly, this deep relief glass could find application in a whole range of architectural products for both commercial and residential markets. For the widest application, ClearCast Glass needs to grow from its present one-at-a-time craft based enterprise to a much more efficient level of commercial production. Machine manufacturers agree that it is technically possible to dramatically reduce production time by integrating the glass forming and tempering processes into a single FastCast Form-and-Temper System. Successful small scale tests have been encouraging, but further development is needed.</p> <p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt'>The closest parallel in the world of commercial glass production might be glass block. Glass block was produced in Europe on a small scale in art glass studios for a number of years but it was not until the 1930's that the further development of machine production produced the commercial product that we are now so familiar with. It's a good example of how a simple idea, like the glass brick, can have a significant impact on our built environment. If the technical realization of a FastCast Form-and-Temper System could be achieved, what effect on the built environment would ClearCast Glass have over a similar span of time? It is not too great a leap to imagine expansive window/walls of high performance textural glass, to envision ClearCast Glass combined with flat glass in artful building skin compositions.</p> <p class=MsoBodyText>For some building products, the kind of mass production model exemplified by glass block seems to be on the wane and many manufacturers, to meet the demands of the marketplace, are finding ways to offer greater product customization. ClearCast Glass will be part of this evolution in one way or another. At least two possible paths are evident. Without any further technical evolution, a more widely dispersed artist/artisan studio production model, using individual kilns and leading with design, is one scenario. Another path is an emerging middle ground that allows a high degree of customization within the flexible medium volume production methods of the FastCast Form-and-Temper System. This concept might be most readily achieved by a progressive glass fabrication company already well-established within the industry.</p> <p class=MsoBodyText>How real is this vision? Time will tell. As the celebrated computer designer, Alan Kay, notably said: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."</p> <p class=MsoBodyText>We believe that the best path to inventing this particular future is through collaborative alliances. We are especially interested in talking with innovative commercial glass fabricators who are committed to ongoing research and development, and for whom ClearCast Glass would be a good fit. Interested parties may send inquiries to: OpenDoor [at] SculpturalGlassDoors [dot] com or, if you prefer, <a href ="page.html?id=9&anchor=contact" target ="_parent">contact</a> Bill McColl directly.</p> <p class=MsoNormal>Thank you for your interest in ClearCast™ Glass and, whatever your field of endeavor, may new doors open to help you achieve your finest visions.</p> <p class=MsoNormal>Bill McColl <br> Bellingham, Washington, USA</p> <br> </br> <br> </br> </div> <script type="text/javascript"> var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); </script> <script type="text/javascript"> try{ var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-852128-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {} </script> </body> </html>

ClearCast™ Glass is manufactured and sold under license of US patent # 5,118,543. ClearCast™ Glass is a trademark of McColl Studio Inc.
Individual product designs are copyrighted as sculptural works of art and/or works of artistic craftsmanship. All rights reserved.