Glazing links the past with the present

When St John’s church in Egham decided to add a new community centre to its landmark Georgian building, originally built in 1817, it needed a sensitive way to link the new with the existing.

In contrast to the historic church, the new community centre is designed in a contemporary style, using natural stonework and curtain walling. The architect has opted to connect the structures with a glazed atrium.

Phil Winch, principal architect at CPL, said: “Structural glazing is an excellent way of connecting buildings with different architectural styles, and also provides a dramatic visual impact to the entrance area.

“In the case of an historic building such as St John’s, a glazed link allows the original building to retain its traditional appearance while creating a route into the new centre that has the bright and airy sense of the outdoors, but which is also warm and sheltered.”

The architect’s design was a central glazed, 6.5m-tall glass box with a partially glazed roof. Pilkington Planar structural glazing was chosen to minimise the visual interruptions created by the glazing.

The glass was supported by a combination of steel and glass fins, which helped to further reduce the presence of opaque structural elements.

The central box is connected to the buildings by four 1m-wide glass wings that sit in grooves in the stonework of the facades, creating a seamless transition.

The double-glazed units used in the atrium feature Pilkington K Glass. This has an on-line pyrolytic low-e coating designed to reflect heat back into a building, improving its thermal efficiency while maximising natural daylight. This reduces the amount of heat that radiates out of the space and helps to lower heating bills during the winter months.