co-founded Advanced Glazings in Sydney, on the east coast of Cape Breton Island, in 1995. In the years since, he estimates that he has been involved in “several thousand” daylighting projects. Dr. Milburn credits the company’s success over the years to their signature innovation: Solera®. Through the creation of a glass product that is both translucent and highly-insulating, he believes they have changed the building game with respect to architecture, design, and sustainability. There have always been problems with glass, ever since it was invented, Dr. Milburn remarked. It has always made for more interesting buildings, but it has always come up with energy-efficiency issues. Additionally, there has always been the problem of natural light as it filters into spaces uncontrolled, resulting in the glare of sunlight and ultimately discomfort. The Romans invented blinds to deal with it, but blinds “depower your windows,” as Dr. Milburn describes it – “they block your light, they block your view.” Thus the need for translucent glass. The translucent glass options that preceded Solera®, however, all have drawbacks. Acidetched glass, for instance, is a durable material and attractive material, but it lacks energy efficiency and does not diffuse light well – in fact, Dr. Milburn says “it actually exacerbates your glare problem.” White laminated glass, meanwhile, is a “slightly better diffuser, but only slightly.” Lastly, there are fibre-reinforced plastic panels, which are great light diffusers and insulate well, but they are single-use plastics with short lifetimes. The plastics also change color and yellow within their short lifetimes, which “ends up being DECEMBER 2024
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