Glass panel facades - StoVentec Glass

As a facade material, glass appeals for its aesthetics, weather resistance, durability and recyclability. Sto offers industry-leading glass facade solutions, highly customisable and suited for applications as diverse as airports, offices and private residences. This timeless material is available in a broad range of panel sizes, finish options and can be used with selected insulated facade systems.

*Please note: Specific products & systems may not be available or suitable for all locations due to local building regulations and standards. Please contact your local Sto expert for advice on locally available products and systems.

Advantages of glass panel facades

• Robust, easy to clean surface
• Highly frost and weather-resistant
• Vast range of colours, sheen and reflectivity including mirrored glass
• UV resistant to minimise colour fading
• Very high shock, impact and crack resistance
• Glass is easily recyclable at end of life

Benefits of StoVentec Glass panels

• Panels can be supplied in virtually any shape, including curves and arcs
• Panels can be cut to allow incorporation of lighting or control panels
• Colour is baked into the rear face providing permanent coloured glass panels that will not wear, scratch, fade or incur water damage
• Colour-matching may be possible
• Can be combined with other Sto facade materials, to create premium elements on a facade such as walkways, entrances and staircases
• Invisible sub-construction results in an open-jointed grid, with no visible frames, rails or fixings
• Sto can offer an independently approved and tested sub-construction to Passivhaus standards
• Tailored advice on sub-construction design, joint detailing and penetrations
• Hard-body impact tests in accordance with BS EN 356
• Blast testing in accordance with ISO 16933 'Glass in Building - Explosion resistant security glazing', a requirement before the system can be applied in certain public areas such as train stations and airports

StoVentec's sub-construction is designed bespoke to project requirements, and is a combination of stainless steel wall brackets, aluminium T-profiles and horizontal rails. Stainless steel brackets have an extremely low thermal conductivity and do not require thermal breaks to avoid cold bridges. They far outperform aluminium brackets, even when a thermostop is included, so less insulation can be used to achieve the same u-value. The inherent high strength of StoVentro brackets means that fewer brackets are usually required and the stainless steel grade is also suitable for use in marine environments.

In exterior applications, the substrate typically has the insulation applied on the air barrier. This keeps the inner leaf at a similar temperature to the internal air and minimises the risk of condensation forming or temperature fluctuations. The outer glass panel, which also prevents the majority of rain wetting the insulation surface, forms a ventilated cavity to its rear face, ensuring any moisture from the interior is quickly dispersed.

Standard colours, matt or reflective glass panels offer freedom to design for a multitude of architectural applications. Whether creating a monolithic facade, or incorporating digital printing into a facade design, Sto's glazed facades are versatile as they are robust.

Case study - Meet the designers

Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg from Space Popular on ‘The Glass Chain’ and StoVentec Glass.

Discover more about the concept and design processes behind ‘The Glass Chain’, a recent body of work by London-based architects Space Popular, commissioned and exhibited at the former StoWerkstatt. Lara and Fredrik’s brief was to redefine the limitations of glass as a building material, and their interpretation offered new perspectives on glass in architecture, connecting imagined utopias of early German modernism with virtual reality experiences being designed today.

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