Super Spacer® keeps architecture flowing

Technical Article
Super Spacer® keeps
architecture flowing
MOL Campus With Super Spacer® For Structural
Glazing Becomes Icon of Modern Budapest
The MOL Campus in the Hungarian capital has become
an architectural icon, combining modern design with
sustainable, high-performance glass facades.
Ms Agnes Koltay
Her love of high-rise buildings
led world-renowned façade
expert Agnes Koltay to Dubai
in 2005, where she created her own
façade consulting firm in 2011. The
façade design for the MOL Campus
in Budapest’s new residential and
commercial district, BudaPart,
brought her back to her native
Hungary for professional reasons.
As with other prestigious freeform
geometry projects, the Super
Spacer® spacer system from
Edgetech/Quanex was involved.
Koltay Façades specified the flexible
silicone foam spacer for the complex
structural glazing façade with flat,
single-curved, as well as convex and
concave curved panes.
Thanks to the location on
the banks of the Danube, the
freely shaped façades, and the
architectural concept, “everything
stays in the flow”—”Panta Rhei”—
96 Glass Bulletin | October - December, 2024

Edgetech • 2
could be the guiding principle for
the entire building. At first glance,
the 120-metre-high tower with the
publicly accessible roof garden forms
an outstanding element of the new
MOL headquarters in the south of
Budapest.
It is the tallest building in the
country and may remain so for a long
time, following the high-rise ban
in the Hungarian capital passed in
2018. However, the elegantly upwardswinging
façade, which merges the
5-story podium housing restaurants
and conference halls with the
29-story tower into a single unit, is
the real architectural highlight of the
MOL Campus.
Architecture for the working
world in the 21st century
This design by London-based Foster
and Partners, created in collaboration
with Finta Studio, reflects the
changes in the working world in the
21st century. Developments such as
remote working, changing project
teams, job sharing, and requirements
like cooperation versus retreat spaces
demand maximum flexibility from
modern office buildings throughout
their entire lifespan.
The mix of workspaces and garden
areas, from the atrium to the top
of the MOL Campus tower, not
only connects the individual floors
but also the people. It is intended
to create an inspiring and relaxing
atmosphere. According to the
architects, daylight, fresh air, and
the unique view of Budapest bring
employees into harmony with both
nature and their urban surroundings.
The inner-city location also makes it
possible for many employees to walk
or bike to work.
Glass Bulletin | October - December, 2024
97

Technical Article
Lighthouse project
for convenience and
sustainability
Like many corporations, Hungarian
oil and natural gas company
MOL is undergoing a sustainable
transformation to be ready for the
low-carbon circular economy. The
new corporate headquarters, with
a total area of 86,000 m² and a
capacity of 2,500 workplaces, acts
as a lighthouse project in this goal,
aiming for BREEAM Excellent and
LEED Platinum certification.
The entire heating and cooling
system will be powered by
renewable energy sources, including
photovoltaics, as well as a geothermal
system with a total borehole length of
32,800 m. Rainwater is collected for
use in watering plants and flushing
toilets.
The aluminum-glass façade is
composed of 24,800 m² of element
façade and 1,700 m² of post-andbeam
façade, prefabricated and
assembled by Scheldebouw. A
total of around 14,000 m² of flat
insulating glazing was supplied by
AGC Interpane Plattling. Around
500 cylindrically curved (convex and
concave) and multi-curved panes,
some with extreme curvature, were
manufactured at Finiglas in Dülmen.
For the four-sided structural
glazing system, partly as toggle
glazing and partly with acoustic film,
colour-neutral Clearvision was used
throughout, with Stopray Vision
50/50T double silver coating on the
outside. The flat, double-glazed units
consist of laminated safety glass on
the outside and 6 mm toughened
safety glass or laminated safety glass/
TVG on the inside.
The triple-glazed units consist of
10 mm toughened safety glass on
the outside, 6 mm toughened safety
glass with screen printing on position
2, and laminated safety glass/TVG
with thermal insulation coating on
the inside. The curved insulating glass
units are made with VSG on both
sides. Super Spacer® SG in 16 mm
and 18 mm sizes was used as warmedge
spacers.
To ensure a distortion-free view,
Koltay Façades specified annealed
laminated glass where possible. Due
to the extensive glazing, daylight
can be used in 90 per cent of the
rooms. Modern building automation,
individual shading options, and
chilled ceilings prevent overheating
and ensure comfort.
The Ucw-value of the curtain
wall in the tower is a maximum of
1.4 W/m²K, while the Ug-value for
the glazing, at a maximum of 1.0 W/
m²K, meets the local requirements
for passive houses, although triple
glazing was only used for skylight
glazing.
3D modelling makes freeform
geometry possible
A constant digital flow of information
between design, engineering,
planning, and production teams
ensured that the iconic shape of the
building could be implemented as
efficiently and cost-effectively as
possible. Even though double-curved
insulating glass units play a key role
in the building’s elegant appearance,
they were used as sparingly as
possible.
Agnes Koltay explains: “The
transition between the podium and
the tower of MOL Campus only runs
over two floors. Therefore, doublecurved
glass was considered in
this area to ensure fluidity, instead
of approaching the curvature by
faceting the panes. Additionally,
the two podium floors and tower
floors have very different footprints,
which also lead to curved shapes. To
ease buildability, we optimized the
bending radii and the arrangement
of the modules, among other
improvements in the modulation,
and fine-tuned the geometry.”
BIM is now standard for large
projects of this type, and Koltay
Façades relies on parametric design
for free-form façades to optimize the
geometry as well as the individual
modules and to be able to update
the plans automatically.
In addition to the different wind
loads for flat, curved, and doublecurved
glass, structural, acoustic,
and safety requirements had to
be considered and simulated. The
nearby rail lines and train station
increase the external noise level on
one side of the building.
Koltay Façades Engineering
uses in-house developed Rhino
scripts for 3D modeling and digital
tools for finite element analysis of
aluminum and glass structures. “Our
responsibility is to transform the
surface-only model into an accurately
dimensioned 3D model that includes
all details such as fastening zones
and joint gaps,” Agnes Koltay adds.
Super Spacer® specified for
curved insulating glass units
As a spacer, Koltay Façades specified
Super Spacer®, a proven system.
“The Opus” by Zaha Hadid and the
spectacular Killa-designed “Museum
of the Future” in Dubai are just two
of the most prestigious free-form
façades designed by Koltay Façades
and realized with Super Spacer®.
“The decision was driven by the
curved insulating glasses, which are
almost impossible to realize with rigid
spacers. In addition, small tolerance
deviations can occur at the edges
of the curved glasses during the
manufacturing process. The structural
foam compensates for this with its
ability to deform and adapt to the
space between the panes,” Agnes
Koltay concludes.
Joachim Stoss, Managing Director
of Edgetech Europe GmbH and Vice
President of International Sales at
Quanex, is satisfied: “Free-form,
organic façades are one of the most
important architectural trends of
recent years. Without a continuous
3D model chain from design to
production, but also without flexible
components like the Super Spacer,
they would only be very complex,
slow, and expensive to implement, if
at all. We are, of course, happy to be
on board again for this prestigious
European project.”
Email: info@edgetech-europe.com
Website: www.superspacer.com
98 Glass Bulletin | October - December, 2024