Located in the Norwegian capital, the Oslo Spektrum development will rise approximately 108 metres across 27 storeys and feature a distinctive modular double-skin façade with curved corner elements. ML System’s BIPV modules will be integrated directly into the building envelope, allowing the façade to generate renewable electricity while maintaining its architectural function. The photovoltaic installation is expected to produce around 59 MWh of electricity annually.

The BIPV modules will be incorporated into the WICONA unitized façade system from Hydro Group, manufactured using Hydro CIRCAL 75R, a low-carbon aluminium alloy containing a high proportion of recycled material. The project is being developed as a joint venture between Aspelin Ramm and Oslo Spektrum, with HENT AS serving as the general contractor. Façade specialist Staticus is responsible for the façade installation, while Solenergi FUSen AS will deliver the photovoltaic installation.

According to Dawid Cycoń, Vice President of ML System, the contract reflects the company’s growing portfolio of high-rise BIPV projects across Europe. Previous references include the 73-metre HAUT residential tower in Amsterdam, a 16-storey residential building in Helsinki, the 84-metre Artery office complex in Vilnius, and the 174-metre DC2 skyscraper in Vienna, where ML System is supplying double-skin façade photovoltaic modules.

The Oslo Spektrum development is among the first skyscrapers in Norway’s capital to integrate BIPV technology directly into its façade, demonstrating the increasing adoption of energy-generating building envelopes in commercial construction.

As of 2 July, ML System reported an order book covering 54,000 square metres of standardized products, including approximately 17,000 square metres allocated for planned deliveries of PhotonRoof photovoltaic roof tiles under a conditional agreement with a European distributor.

Alongside its growing project portfolio, ML System has also introduced an AI-powered visualization tool that enables architects and designers to generate building concepts using the company’s standardized BIPV products.

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The façade consists of 2,829 hand-crafted ceramic elements, each shaped like a faceted diamond. Mounted directly onto the glass storefront using custom-designed steel fixings, the ceramic pieces appear to float across the façade. By positioning the diamonds on both the interior and exterior sides of the glazing, MVRDV created a layered, immersive environment that surrounds visitors with suspended jewel-like forms while preserving the transparency of the storefront.

The density of the ceramic diamonds varies across the façade to balance openness and privacy. Around display windows and at the building’s corner, the pattern gradually dissolves, allowing clear views into and out of the boutique while maintaining the visual impact of the installation.

Each ceramic diamond was individually produced using the traditional slip-casting method before being glazed in one of nine carefully selected colours. Together, these colours create a gradient that transitions from Tiffany’s signature robin’s-egg blue to pristine white. The gradual shift in colour attracts attention to the storefront while enabling the building to blend harmoniously with the neutral architectural palette of the surrounding Dorotheen Quartier.

The ceramic elements were manufactured by Koninklijke Tichelaar, the oldest ceramics manufacturer in the Netherlands and a specialist in developing custom ceramic glazes. Beyond the colour gradient, each diamond features an iridescent finish that changes subtly depending on lighting conditions, weather, and viewing angle. This shimmering surface was developed through a collaboration between Tichelaar and MVRDV using carefully controlled variations in mineral composition and glazing temperature across each ceramic piece, creating a natural, dynamic effect.

The iridescent finish references Favrile Glass, the richly coloured decorative glass patented by Louis Comfort Tiffany in the 1890s, reinforcing the connection between the façade and the brand’s long history of material experimentation and craftsmanship.

Commenting on the project, MVRDV founding partner Jacob van Rijs said the design sought to capture the sense of wonder and enchantment that has defined Tiffany & Co. since its beginnings. Through the illusion of floating diamonds and their constantly shifting iridescent surfaces, the façade transforms the storefront into an architectural expression of the brand’s heritage while offering visitors a memorable visual experience.

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While the elevated design creates a publicly accessible coastal park beneath the buildings, the project’s façade plays an equally significant role in defining its architectural identity and environmental performance.

The three cloud-like volumes are enclosed by expansive curved glass façades that reinforce the building’s soft, organic geometry. Large-format glazing minimizes visual interruptions, providing panoramic views of Shenzhen Bay while maximizing daylight penetration throughout the office interiors. Frameless glass sections further enhance transparency, creating a seamless visual connection between indoor workspaces and the surrounding coastal environment.

To address the challenges of the subtropical climate, the façade incorporates integrated horizontal shading elements that follow the curved profile of each building. Rather than appearing as separate attachments, the shading devices are carefully embedded within the façade system, reducing direct solar heat gain while preserving unobstructed outward views. This approach improves occupant comfort, lowers cooling demand, and maintains the clean architectural expression envisioned by MAD.

The northern office volume introduces an additional façade feature through a semi-open shell-shaped ETFE skylight that covers the central atrium. The lightweight ETFE structure filters intense coastal sunlight while allowing abundant natural illumination to reach interior circulation spaces, creating bright communal areas without excessive heat buildup.

Steel-truss bridges connecting the three elevated buildings are wrapped within the architectural envelope, ensuring visual continuity across the campus while allowing employees to move efficiently between office blocks.

The extensive use of high-performance glazing, integrated solar control, and lightweight ETFE technology demonstrates how façade engineering contributes to both energy efficiency and user experience. Together, these systems support a workplace that remains visually open to its surroundings while responding to the environmental demands of Shenzhen’s waterfront climate.

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Recognized as East Africa’s largest building and construction exhibition, the event is expected to feature exhibitors from more than 43 countries, presenting the latest innovations in construction machinery, building materials, mining equipment, tools, hardware, heavy equipment, and infrastructure technologies. The exhibition will also highlight products relevant to the glass and façade industries, including architectural glass, aluminium systems, glazing solutions, ceramics, and advanced building envelope materials.

As Kenya continues to invest in urban development and infrastructure, demand remains strong for imported construction products, including glass, steel, electrical equipment, machinery, plastics, and wood-based materials.

BUILDEXPO Kenya 2026 will provide an important business platform for manufacturers, distributors, contractors, architects, and developers seeking new partnerships and opportunities within the rapidly expanding East African construction market.

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The transaction marks the conclusion of Accursia Capital’s ownership period, which began in November 2025. During its time under the Munich-based private equity firm, Eckelt Glas benefited from a range of operational and functional initiatives designed to strengthen the business within its industrial environment and support its long-term development.

According to Accursia Capital, the company was integrated into a broader portfolio strategy focused on operational improvement and value creation. Efforts during the ownership period were aimed at enhancing organisational capabilities and positioning the business for future growth in the highly competitive architectural glass sector.

The divestment forms part of Accursia Capital’s active portfolio management approach. The firm stated that the transaction enables a more focused allocation of resources, capital, and expertise across its remaining industrial investments while maintaining alignment with its strategic objectives.

Eckelt Glas has built a strong reputation for manufacturing complex glazing solutions that meet demanding architectural and safety requirements. Its products are used in landmark façade projects and modern building envelopes where performance, transparency, and safety are critical considerations.

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The project’s defining spatial logic is derived from a repetitive trapezoidal module rotated along a continuous curved axis. This generates a serpentine massing strategy that organizes the building as a continuous infrastructural loop rather than discrete blocks. The resulting geometry enables a calibrated distribution of built volume around preserved site vegetation, producing a sequence of semi-enclosed courtyards that function as intermediate social and environmental buffers. These voids are not residual spaces but intentionally programmed micro-environments supporting informal interaction, visual permeability, and daylight penetration.

A critical architectural decision is the elevation of the building into a continuous landscape roof, extending the ground plane into a six-storey elevated topography. This green roof system operates as both ecological infrastructure and spatial extension, incorporating grass and flowering vegetation while supporting a continuous circulation path. It functions as a public-like linear park, offering panoramic visual access toward Lake Lyngby and reinforcing the project’s conceptual positioning of architecture as inhabitable landscape rather than object-based construction.

Environmental performance is embedded in both envelope and systems design. The façade incorporates approximately 4,000 insulated glazing units utilizing Pilkington Suncool 70/40 supplied by Glaseksperten A/S. This specification achieves a controlled solar gain strategy, balancing high daylight transmittance with reduced thermal load, thereby mitigating cooling demand while maintaining visual continuity with the surrounding landscape. In parallel, energy recovery ventilation systems are implemented, enabling up to 90% heat recovery from exhaust air, while floor slab thermal mass contributes to diurnal load stabilization.

The project operates under a DGNB Gold certification framework, reflecting integrated sustainability criteria across environmental, economic, and social dimensions. Key strategies include stormwater retention via the extensive green roof system, reduction of urban heat island effects, and enhancement of local biodiversity through layered planting strategies. The façade and building envelope are calibrated to optimize daylight autonomy while minimizing operational energy consumption.

Programmatically, the development is structured around a dual hierarchy: private residential units and a dense network of shared infrastructure. Interior planning, developed by Studio Aisslinger, prioritizes compact private living conditions supplemented by extensive communal programming, including shared kitchens, laundries, fitness areas, and study environments. A central communal volume functions as the social condensate of the scheme, explicitly designed to facilitate cross-cohort interaction between students and senior residents, reinforcing the project’s intergenerational housing model.

The architectural and urban strategy positions Basecamp Lyngby within a broader discourse on socially sustainable housing typologies, particularly the reconfiguration of student accommodation as a hybridized civic infrastructure. The project has received multiple international recognitions, including the Golden A’ Design Award in Architecture (2020), the Iconic Award for Architecture (2020), and the Green Cities Europe Award (2023), reflecting its relevance as a reference case for integrated design approaches combining modular construction logic, landscape urbanism, and high-performance building envelopes.

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Designed by Kiessler Architekten, the new building is located at Theresienhöhe on the former exhibition grounds and replaces the company’s previous, space-limited site. The project was enabled through a city-supported development initiative that allowed Rischart, which employs over 500 staff, to remain centrally located in Munich. The building has a total volume of approximately 105,000 m³ and follows a trapezoidal footprint, incorporating three internal courtyards that improve daylight penetration and spatial quality.

A defining feature of the headquarters is its high-performance glazed façade, which combines transparency with functional efficiency. The exterior is structured with vertical and horizontal brick divisions, creating a strong visual identity while maintaining openness and natural light throughout the interior production and office spaces. The façade concept extends beyond aesthetics, acting as an integrated energy system.

At the uppermost level, a photovoltaic façade system developed by ML System has been installed, consisting of 200 individually designed photovoltaic glass units. These elements were engineered specifically for the project, incorporating tailored aesthetic requirements alongside technical performance criteria such as enhanced acoustic insulation and optimized energy output.

The system uses laminated safety glass configurations (including multi-layered VSG and TVG compositions with Low-E coatings), ensuring durability, safety, and thermal efficiency. The total installed capacity reaches 49.8 kWp, effectively transforming the façade into an active power-generating component of the building envelope.

Façade execution and integration were carried out in collaboration with FRENER & REIFER, ensuring precise installation of the complex glass modules within the architectural grid. The result is a seamless integration of engineering and design, where the building envelope contributes directly to operational energy needs.

Functionally, the building is organized into multiple layers of use. In addition to bakery production and logistics, primarily located in underground levels, the upper floors accommodate 100 service apartments for employees and 84 hotel apartments operated by the Cocoon hotel chain. This mixed-use structure strengthens urban efficiency while reducing spatial fragmentation.

The Rischart headquarters stands as a model of contemporary urban architecture, where food production, hospitality, and energy generation converge within a single integrated system, redefining the role of façade design in industrial-commercial buildings.

All image courtesy of © kiessler architekten

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With a total height of approximately 48.7 meters, the building is shaped through a carefully carved elliptical massing strategy. Rather than a conventional rectangular tower, the form is “excavated” to generate a continuous sequence of voids and recesses. These voids become spiraling terraces distributed across multiple levels, creating a layered relationship between interior spaces and outdoor environments. This design approach increases usable exterior areas while also improving daylight penetration deep into the floor plates.

The terraced configuration is not purely aesthetic; it directly influences environmental performance. Each setback reduces wind pressure at higher levels and introduces planted or open-air zones that act as transitional microclimates. These spaces contribute to passive cooling strategies and improve occupant comfort in a dense urban context where open space is limited.

The façade system is a defining technical and visual component of the MET Building. Developed with advanced glazing solutions provided by Guardian Glass, the envelope is organized into alternating opaque and transparent modules. This rhythm creates a controlled balance between openness and enclosure, responding to solar orientation and internal program needs. Full-height glazing is concentrated at the lower levels, enhancing visual continuity with the street and activating the ground-floor retail and public interfaces.

Above the base, the façade becomes more articulated and layered, incorporating sun-shading elements, ventilated panels, and energy-efficient glazing systems. This reduces heat gain while maintaining high levels of natural daylight, aligning with contemporary sustainable design standards.

Structurally, the building is organized around a reinforced concrete core that provides stability and supports vertical circulation, while perimeter structural elements allow for flexible floor plates adapted to different uses. The underground levels extend the building’s functionality, accommodating four basement floors dedicated to parking, mechanical systems, and service infrastructure.

Programmatically, the MET combines residential units, office floors, and commercial spaces in a vertically integrated model. This mix reinforces continuous activity throughout the day and strengthens its role as an urban anchor within Tirana’s evolving city fabric.

Project summary:

• Name: MET Building, Tirana, Albania
• Architect: Mario Cucinella Architects
• Location: Boulevardi Zhan D’ark, Tirana CBD
• Program: Mixed-use (residential, office, retail)
• Height / Levels: ~48.7 m, 12 storeys above ground (plus 4 underground)
• Design Features: Sculpted terraces, elliptical massing, green outdoor spaces, articulated façade with alternating opaque/transparent modules
• Façade Engineering: Global One – including glazing systems, ventilated panels, sun-shading, and technical supervision
• Status: Ongoing / under construction

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Scheduled for 4–6 September 2026 at the prestigious Chennai Trade Centre, the landmark exhibition is attracting companies specialising in Glass, Façade, Doors & Windows, Aluminium Extrusion, Hardware, and Machinery & Tools – sectors poised for significant expansion in South India’s dynamic market.

The strong early response underscores the platform’s credibility and highlights the region’s strategic importance, where rapid urbanisation, major infrastructure developments, and growing demand for innovative architectural and interior solutions are reshaping business opportunities nationwide.

INFRAME Expo 2026 is positioned as a meticulously curated professional hub bringing together manufacturers, processors, architects, designers, dealers, distributors, and industry professionals. The event will enable high-value product demonstrations, strategic networking, knowledge exchange, and opportunities for sustainable business growth.

With over 100 exhibitors expected, an estimated 8,000 visitors, and more than 5,000 square metres of exhibition space, the expo is set to deliver an immersive and impactful industry experience. As demand continues to rise, prime locations are being secured rapidly, making early confirmation essential.

The event is further strengthened by the regional legacy of MGPMA and the industry influence of Glass Bulletin, establishing INFRAME Expo 2026 as South India’s leading annual industry conclave.

With preparations advancing steadily, the expo is set to redefine industry standards through innovation, collaboration, and business development. Industry leaders are encouraged to secure their participation at the earliest opportunity.

For bookings, contact:

Mr. Lakhan Singh
+91 93105 62488
editor@glassbulletin.com

Mr. Aman Kapoor
+91 7678 244 592
team@glassbulletin.com

www.inframeexpo.com

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Structurally, the building uses mass timber as a primary carbon-saving material, reducing embodied emissions compared to conventional steel-and-concrete systems while enabling faster prefabrication and improved interior warmth. This structural choice is paired with a high-performance curtain wall system that was engineered to maximize daylight while controlling solar heat gain and glare.

A key technical innovation is the glazing assembly combining AviProtek® E bird-friendly glass with Vitro Architectural Glass Solarban® 90 low-e coating. The configuration places the bird-safe frit pattern (AviProtek® E Pattern 215) on surface 1, while the low-emissivity coating is applied to surface 2. This separation allows optical clarity and bird-collision mitigation on the exterior while optimizing thermal insulation internally.

The system achieves a Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) of 0.23, limiting unwanted solar heat gain, and a Visible Light Transmittance (VLT) of 51%, ensuring strong daylight penetration. Fabrication was completed by Trulite with installation by Gage Aluminum, ensuring tight tolerances for a high-performance envelope.

The design team increased the window-to-wall ratio to approximately 60:40, supported by careful window head elevation adjustments to deepen daylight distribution. Interior lighting systems are fully integrated with daylight sensors, enabling daylight harvesting that reduces artificial lighting demand by around 60%. This directly lowers operational energy loads, particularly in lighting-dominant office zones.

The building also incorporates extensive biophilic design principles. Large glazed openings overlook adjacent ravine landscapes, enhancing visual connectivity to nature. This supports occupant wellbeing through circadian rhythm alignment, reduced visual fatigue, and improved cognitive performance.

AviProtek® E Pattern 215 was selected for its tested bird-collision deterrence performance while maintaining near-invisible visual disruption. The ceramic frit pattern is designed to be effective for avian species without compromising architectural transparency or daylight quality.

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