New Glass Skin
Brings a Creative Charge to Harbourfront’s Enwave Theatre
The recent renovation of the Enwave Theatre at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre included a brand new skin for the theatre - and it’s more than just a pretty face. The innovative glass envelope that replaced the old thermopanes has been transformed by Sarah Hall’s Waterglass – an integrated art installation that not only looks great -it actually generates electricity with built-in photovoltaic (solar) cells. This installation is the most apparent of the numerous energy-efficient elements designed into the building and its windows.
Sarah Hall Studio is a North American leader in Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV), and has installed several beautiful and dramatic works in Vancouver, BC, Portland, Oregon, Saskatoon, SK, and Washington, DC. Waterglass is her first photovoltaic installation in
Toronto.
The Enwave Theatre was originally constructed in 1926 as an ice house where large blocks of ice intended for freight and cold storage were stored. It was converted into a 416-seat theatre in the 1980s. As part of the renovation concluded this year the theatre now boasts a sleek, three-story glass envelope that surrounds the entire north, east, and west sides of the facility, providing thermal insulation and the unique, electricity-generating windows. Waterglass is a world first for integrating art glass and photovoltaics with heat mirror technology, bringing it to the highest insulation values possible for glass. Not a bad upgrade for a 90-year-old ice house!
While the windows` design looks to the future, they also connect to the past, with a collection of 360 historic photographs permanently embedded in the glass envelope. The photos compellingly document the history of Lake Ontario and our relationship with it. The glass installation generates electricity during daylight hours from the western canopy photovoltaics. This retrofit significantly reduced the building’s energy consumption, carbon production and cost of operation. The colour-changing LED’s are now complete and begin their illumination of Waterglass at sunset.
As with every major project, several technical partners contributed to the success of this transformation: Internat Energy Solutions Canada, Glasmalerei Peters GmbH, MGT–esys GmbH and Eco Insulating Glass Inc. The project was sponsored by Enwave – world leaders in deep-water cooling of buildings – and it was wholeheartedly embraced by Harbourfront as part of its commitment to sustainability. This partnership with Harbourfront Centre won an Award of Distinction from The Globe and Mail Business for the Arts Partnership Awards.
The transformation of the Enwave Theatre provides a stunning example of how technology, a commitment to environmental sustainability and artistic creativity can be beautifully expressed.
The Waterglass project, integrated into three facades of the Enwave Theatre at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto uses high-tech glass art and photovoltaics to tell a story about our relationship with Lake Ontario. Sarah’s artwork spans 1,736 square feet of the theatre’s glass envelope. Harbourfront is situated directly on the shoreline. In the design, the lake joins the glass canopy at the western end and fuses with a series of solar panels creating an energy pattern of light on water.
Flowing into the northern façade, the water forms a quiet deep pool then lifts into a series of waves. As the wave reaches the eastern end it transforms into spray and mist floating around the corner into the east façade. The northern face - the longest side - is a reminder of the eternal beauty and unceasing energy of water and light, the essential elements of life. Waterglass then becomes a dream-boat holding our past, present and future. This is expressed through 360 screen-printed images of Lake Ontario – its ecology, human history, geography and primal beauty.
The images are arranged into a transparent grid that relates to and plays on the pattern of the photovoltaic cells on the western side. From sunlight our human life and on and about the lake is illuminated. Early images (from Toronto Archives) of First Nation habitation give way to maps and European explorers. Toronto grows up along the waterfront and over time our industry, port and way of life creates ever more barriers to the Lake.
In the uppermost imagery, a new awareness of our place in the world shows hope – new energy technologies, wind and solar power, revitalization of the rivers, rehabilitation of the species and respect for our great Lake. All of the human activities from the First Nation settlement to 2012 are framed by the shorelines and eternal horizons of the Lake itself – as if the Lake was holding us in her hands.
Out of the natural world and our traditional ways of using it, comes a new vision: the replacement of coal plants with photovoltaics, wind energy, and heating and cooling through deep water and geothermal technologies.
Techniques & Materials
The artistic elements on glass were created with airbrushed, fired cobalt mineral pigments and enamels on 6mm float glass. The painting also includes glasflos, a powdered flux added to the paint which gives the paint a soft, fluid-looking quality. The glass paints are permanently fused into the glass surface and can never fade or discolour.
The image gallery uses screen-printed photographs and dichroic glass. The result is a sharp, clean image on a background that changes colour depending on the angle of the sunlight. The image galleries were assembled using the extensive resources available to us: Ontario and City of Toronto Archives, newspaper libraries, public and private collections, along with my own photos. The back of the photographed image is sandblasted then laminated with dichroic glass.
The 10 photovoltaic panels (solar collectors) are created as triple glazed safety glass units with embedded solar cells. There are 54 standard blue cells per panel, 5” x 5” each. It is a 5kW system. The photovoltaic units are mounted into the existing frames with conduit wiring. This installation is a highly visible demonstration of Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) - an alternative to the more common approach that places solar panels on rooftops without regard to the architectural setting. It is also an essential and deeply integrated aspect of the art installation.
The art glass, which Sarah Hall fabricates in collaboration with Glasmalerei Peters GmbH in Paderborn, Germany, matches the colour surface of the new curtain wall glazing in the other panels. After the art glass was finished, the panels were transported to MGT GmbH in Austria for adding the layer of heat mirror technology (all of the panels) and photovoltaics (10 panels). The windows were packed and transported to Canada, then installed by ECO glass.
Sarah Hall, RCA
Sarah Hall is an internationally recognized artist creating large-scale art glass installations and solar projects. Sarah began her studies at Sheridan College in Ontario and continued her education in the Architectural Glass Department at Swansea College of Art in Wales, UK.
Her exceptional contribution to the built environment has garnered ‘Honor Awards’ from the American Institute of Architects and the ‘Allied Arts Award’ from the Ontario Association of Architects. Hall’s artistic achievements were acknowledged by her induction into the Royal Canadian Academy of Art in 2002 and annual listing in our Canadian Who’s Who.
In addition to projects, lectures and exhibitions throughout North America and Europe, Hall has co-authored 35 published articles on glass art and published three books: The Color of Light (1999), Windows on Our Souls (2007) with Bob Shantz and Transfiguring Prairie Skies (2012) with Donald Bolen. Her work was the subject of J. S. Porters’ 2011 beautifully illustrated “The Glass Art of Sarah Hall”.
Sarah has been granted an Arts Fellowship from the Chalmers Foundation to support her innovative work in BIPV (Building Integrated Photovoltaic) solar art glass. Her art glass projects are fabricated exclusively in Germany. Sarah is well known for her artistic innovation and pioneering of new glass techniques. Her ground breaking work was recently featured in the CBC documentary series “Great Minds of Design”.
More Solar/ Photovoltaic projects in Canada:
Waterglass -Harbourfront Centre (Enwave Theatre), Toronto, ON
Lux Gloria -Cathedral of the Holy Family, Saskatoon, SK
True North/Lux Nova -Regent College, UBC, Vancouver, BC
Leaves of Light -York University, Toronto, ON
The Science of Light -Grass Valley Elementary School, Camas, WA
O Canada -Solar Decathlon House, Washington, DC
http://www.sarahhallstudio.com
