Printed Architectural Glass for a Managing Director’s Office

A confidential corporate client asked Sun Studio to turn the glazing in a managing director’s office into the feature of the room.

Five panels, each three metres tall and a metre wide, printed with a geometric pattern in layered colour.

Project facts

Client

A confidential corporate client

Location

Dubai

Material

Architectural glass

Printing service

Glass printing

Application

Office glazing as a room feature

Quantity

Five panels

Panel size

3 metres tall by 1 metre wide

Production

Direct UV printing in layered colour

The requirement

Glass is lit from both sides and never the same way twice. By day these panels are backlit by full sun; at night they are lit from inside the room. A print that looks right in one condition can go flat or muddy in the other.

What we did

The pattern was built in layered colour rather than a single pass, which is what lets the same panel hold up under transmitted light during the day and reflected light at night.

The panels were printed flat, at full height, so the pattern runs across the glazing without a join.

Technical considerations

Architectural glass in the UAE has to hold its colour against years of direct sunlight. How long any printed glass holds depends on the glass, the primer, the cure and where the panel sits, which is why the specification is decided per panel rather than per material.

The outcome

A room that changes character between morning and evening, with a print that holds its colour through both.