Modern interiors are often characterised by clean sightlines, minimal clutter and plenty of natural light, so it is no surprise that interior glazing with a virtually frameless look has grown in popularity in recent years.

Advances in fire resistant glazing have enabled modern performance expectations to be applied to architecturally sensitive and listed buildings as a variety of Promat SYSTEMGLAS® projects demonstrate.

Promat SYSTEMGLAS® fire resistant glazing systems enable architects and developers to maximise natural light within buildings by using glass in separating floors and ceilings. Glass floors have become an increasingly attractive design option as glass composition and manufacturing has evolved over recent decades, ensuring that the demanding structural performance required for load-bearing applications can be accommodated in more types of projects. This provides the opportunity to use glass to allow light to flow between the floors of a building, or even from the street level above, making glass floors particularly appealing where daylighting is sought in basement levels, or in rooms where there is limited or zero potential for external windows.

The UK has some of the most popular museums in the world spanning a hugely diverse range of historical and cultural subjects. According to the latest statistics, the country’s most visited museum, the British Museum, attracts around 5.8 million annual visitors alone, and it is estimated that there were around 35 million visits in total to England’s top ten museums in 2023.

Promat UK has introduced a new privacy vision panel which can be incorporated into fire doors within healthcare and secure environments to balance functional and aesthetic objectives with assured fire safety. Promat Custodia is an E30 fire rated triple-glazed cassette featuring an interstitial ‘hit and miss’ blind which can be retrofitted as part of refurbishment projects or installed into new FD30 doors. The glazing cassette has been tested to provide integrity-only fire resistance for 30 minutes, making it suitable for the majority of fire doors within care and custodial environments.

Schools and nursery school environments present many design challenges given the need to create attractive spaces where children will feel engaged and comfortable whilst being safe and secure. And studies from around the world, conducted over many years, have demonstrated how important it is to get school design right due to the negative impact a poor quality environment can have on a child’s development and ability to learn.