Sim Chee Liang has more than 20 years of experience in the glass processing industry. He is also the newly-appointed president of Malaysian Green Building Council (MGBC). With regards to materiality, he believes that glass plays an integral role not only in architecture and design, but also in contributing to a more sustainable built environment.
How do you see the outlook for glass in construction now?
First of all, there are many advantages of incorporating glass into a building design. It lends a lighter façade, which reduces the structural design load. Glass with higher visible light transmission (VLT) can harness more daylight into the interior, which reduces artificial lighting. Then, high-performance glass such as those with lower shading coefficient and high U-value [glass insulating capacity] can minimise thermal heat gain.
These days, glass has gone beyond being merely decorative. The rapid developments in material engineering have allowed high-tech glass products to expand its applications to functional and structural roles. The visual appearance, optical and thermal properties can be modified by applying surface coatings.
