Gallery

Elbphilharmonie

Elbe Philharmonic Hall, Hamburg, Germany - Project Start: 2007

Hamburg Philharmonic

The Elbphilharmonie (Elbe Philharmonic Hall) is a concert hall in the HafenCity quarter of Hamburg, Germany, on the Grasbrook peninsula of the Elbe River. It is one of the largest and acoustically most advanced concert halls in the world. It is popularly nicknamed Elphi.
The new glassy construction resembles a hoisted sail, water wave, iceberg or quartz crystal; it sits on top of an old warehouse building (Kaispeicher A, built 1963) near the historical Speicherstadt and is designed by architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron. It is the tallest inhabited building in Hamburg, with a final height of 108 metres (354 ft).
The Elbphilharmonie was officially inaugurated with concerts of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and a light show on 11 January 2017.


The splendid 21,800 m² glass facade of the building consists of a part (approximately 5000 m²) of curved glass that transforms the structure into a huge quartz crystal, whose appearance changes constantly while capturing the reflections of the sky, water and of the city lights.

Josef Gartner was responsible for the development of the glass facade, this includes both flat and curved insulating windows for the windows, and single triple-curved curved windows for the loggias (covered external galleries).

One of the challenges was the development of the curved glass elements of the facade. Until then, no one had ever folded glass with that complex 3D geometry.

Another challenge was to maintain the functions of the different glass coatings during the production process. The facade glazing consists of a low emission coating, a solar control coating, chromed mirror dots and a ceramic screen printing motif. The solar control coating and chrome points were key to achieving the customer's performance requirements. Gartner was concerned that the high temperatures in the folding furnace would destroy these layers or negatively affect their performance.
"We talked to many companies, but Guardian was the only one who could offer a base layer that ensured that the level of sun protection maintains its functions during the production process," says Karl Lindenmaier, Elbphilharmonie Senior Project Manager at Josef Gartner . "In close collaboration with Guardian, we have been able to achieve and maintain customer requirements."

In addition to collaborating with Gartner during the facade design phase, the Guardian Glass team worked closely with the curved glass processor, SunGlass Srl. This ensured that the curved glass met the architect's performance needs and aesthetics (i.e. curved glass shapes, appearance and chromatic reflections). 

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