ICONSIAM Shopping Centre - Glass facade

The ICONSIAM Shopping Center is a building complex with a total area of over 750,000 m². The base building with its curved all-glass façade faces the promenade of the Chao Phraya River. Over a length of around 300 m and a height of up to 24 m, all-glass swords and panes with a total surface area of around 5,300 m², arranged in a curved line, form the spectacular space closure for the lower three floors.

The glass façade is divided into three areas and essentially consists of 120 vertical glass swords and 333 flat panes of glass stretched between them. The different inclination of the glass swords creates a dynamic curved facade surface. The glass panes have a span of 1.7 to 3.1 m in transverse direction. The glass swords with a total height of 24 m and a width of 1.1 m form the main load-bearing elements of the façade and are arranged at a standard distance of 2 m. They consist of 5 to 8 individual sheets of TVG with a thickness of 10 mm and interlayers of SG foil. Due to the film composite, an almost monolithic load-bearing behaviour is achieved. The vertical joints in the glass swords, which are necessary due to the large dimensions, are rigidly designed. All centreboards are suspended from the uppermost support point because the contact surfaces are not sufficiently load-bearing.

The 24 m high façade surfaces are divided into a maximum of three pane formats of up to 16 x 3.1 m. They are made of 2 x 10 mm laminated safety glass with SG interlayers and are connected to the centreboards by means of punctiform clamps. An additional silicone bonding between glass swords and windscreens creates a composite effect in the stiffening at facade level. The dead weight of the up to 2.4 tons heavy panes is transferred to the glass swords at the lower edge via cross beams. Special suction units were developed for the assembly of the oversized glass elements. The glass swords were supported by milled wooden templates during assembly, which formed the course of the façade. Only when the facade panes were inserted did the facade become self-supporting.

Planning, production and assembly of the facade were awarded to the company se-austria GmbH & Co KG, a company of the seele group. Engelsmann Peters Beratende Ingenieure received the order from seele for the static-constructive processing of the project for the work phases approval planning and implementation planning. In close cooperation, a static-constructive structural optimisation and the development of junctions and detail points as well as the provision of all static verifications required for the execution and assembly were carried out.