Covered in nearly 30,000m² of glass, Commercial Bay certainly relies heavily on the material. This video sees Woods Glass explain the engineering feat behind one particularly impressive feature of the building: the virtually structure-less glass canopy hanging over the entrance to the lobby.

The ground floor entry to the Commercial Bay tower on Customs Street West is made almost entirely of glass, appearing to have hardly anything holding it up. Precinct Properties CEO Scott Pritchard calls it, “truly a remarkable experience”.

The team at Woods Glass talks about testing the glass at their manufacturing plant to ensure it could tolerate the immense load that would need to be placed on it in order for the design to work. “We had one shot at getting the test right and understanding if the design was going to work,” explains window engineering consultants technical manager Alex Blakeley.

Pritchard says, “From a design perspective, what you set out to do is create these moments that people stop and go, wow that’s incredible. To achieve that, you need the best design team and you also need the best people to be able to deliver the type of product that we want to deliver.”

Watch the video to learn more about creating this first of its kind project.

ArchitectureNow works with a range of partners in the A&D supply sector to source appropriate content for the site. This article has been supported by Woods Glass.