UOW Molecular Horizons Building Pedestrian Bridge

Bridging the gap with elevated glass architecture - provide a design to align with the University of Wollongong whole-of-campus strategy to mitigate and protect birds from flying into glazed external envelopes.

Located in the Illawarra region, the University of Wollongong is arguably one of Australia’s most beautiful campuses. Positioned between tree covered mountains and the sky blue waters of the Pacific, this campus characterises Australia’s natural beauty.

The University has recently completed construction of the $80m world leading science research facility, Molecular Horizons.

The new five storey building, complete with advanced technology has been designed to broaden the horizons of research life at a molecular level, helping researchers in their quest to solve some of the biggest health challenges facing the world today.

A key component of this project is a pedestrian link bridge joining the Molecular Horizons building and the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute. The bridgeway features bird friendly glazing designed to prevent bird strikes.

Collisions of birds with windows are a major cause of bird mortality in the world, and the University of Wollongong have shown commitment to adopting a sympathetic design to protect the native wildlife in the area.

Architectural firm Denton Corker Marshall were in agreeance to use digitally printed safety glass after discussion with the broader consulting team and researching existing built project examples. The technology allowed for a ceramic frit pattern to be printed on surface #1, the exposed surface of the glass, therefore reducing the external reflectivity resulting in a bird friendly anti-collision glass solution.

The design team had developed a white dot gradient ceramic frit pattern for use on the TEMS portion of the building. The pattern was used on the U-glass panels, designed to enclose and provide screening and privacy from external viewers.

Following expert consultation, the contiguous pattern was also able to be utilised as an effective solution to prevent bird strike allowing for the design of a fully glazed bridge.

The main contractor, Richard Crookes Constructions in collaboration with Total Glass & Aluminium made contact with SOLOS Glass who had the capacity and the equipment to use this technology to produce the bird strike glass for the project.

The Result

The EnVision™ glass panels enhance the visual aesthetics of the building whilst the key feature of bird strike prevention suits the specification brief for this world leading science facility.

Project Specifications

Sector: Education

Application: Exterior Windows - Walkway Bridge

Product Mix:
25.52mm EnVision™ Custom Design