Bird Protection Glass in Commercial Building Design

IQ Projects offers Bird Protection Glass for our architectural glazing projects. These transparent patterns across the glass unit are almost invisible to the human eye but provide great visibility to the birds as scientifically proven.

As many as 250,000 birds in the UK die every year from flying directly into large windows and into buildings that use large structural glass facades. This shows the need to incorporate bird friendly glass where possible in highly glazed commercial building designs.

 

Can birds see glass?

Although birds have good eyesight they don’t understand the concept of reflection which means they don’t discern glass very well. A bird will look at what it thinks is a tree or sky in the distance but in actual fact is glass, leading the bird to fly directly towards it and hit the glazing.

This phenomenon has increased with the technological advancement of glass structures becoming clearer, more transparent and producing less distraction. With the use of glass in architecture is only growing, this has pushed manufacturers to develop technical glazing solutions such as solar control glass to prevent overheating and bird protection glass.

Most people may believe it is an unusual event for a bird to die from a glass collision. However, most birds that hit windows are often in fatal or critical conditions which eventually ends up being fatal even after temporarily flying away.

 

How do you make glass bird friendly?

The hazard of birds hitting into glazing can be dramatically reduced by making the glazing a lot more obvious and easily visible to the bird. Recognising the number of bird fatalities in large glass buildings, IQ offers a range of technical glazing solutions, including Bird Protection Glass.

Removing the need for decals, nets or screens that would ruin the external design on the building, this technical glazing solution utilises modern advances in glazing technology to enable to glass to become more visible to birds whilst remaining virtually invisible to the human eye.

 

What is bird protection glass?

Bird Protection Glass, also known as bird friendly glass or bird proof glass, is an innovative and effective solution suitable for all architectural glazing. This is made with a specialist coating that is applied within the glass unit however to ensure that the coating is visible to birds the glass must always be laminated. This is transparent to the human eye while the special UV reflective coating is only visible to birds.

The pattern and coating was developed within the same discipline as Biomimicry Design Theory which looks to get answers to human problems from nature. The pattern is made from various uneven criss-crossed lines which creates the visible appearance of a spider’s web to a bird’s vision. As a result, birds can then visually detect a glass surface and avoid it.

The glass is available up to a maximum pane of 2800 x 6000mm and is suitable for almost any glass structure. The appearance of the glass offers a clean design, unobstructed views and provides high levels of performance. Bird Protection Glass is available in, visible markings across the glass pane if required.

 

Applications for bird protection glass

This type of bird proof glazing solution can be incorporated into any commercial building design as the coating can be applied to structural glazing, sliding glass doors, glass balustrades, and much more.

Some of the most popular applications for bird protection glass in commercial buildings include frameless glass balustrades around sky gardens or rooftop terraces, any glazing near the top of high rise buildings whether it’s a structural glass façade or oversized sliding glass doors and glazing in zoos and animal parks.

As the design is nearly invisible to the human eye there is no need to worry about this coating detracting from the overall building design.

 

“Saving two birds with one stone” in Hellebrunn Zoo

Hellebrunn Zoo in Germany is home to a wide variety of wildlife and animals. The owner discovered bird collision as a major concern. Silhouette stickers were often used to minimise strikes but proved ineffective and useless while particular areas of the glass were obstructed.

The zoo decided to favour Bird Protection Glass and was pleased to discover no birds had collided or hit the glazing since installation. The large glass elevations provided an unrestricted view of the animals and exhibit, this was a great success for the owner.

Large glazing architectures are increasing in numbers every year, it is crucial we are made aware of this before constructing or installing a “death trap” for these innocent birds. By installing Bird Glass protection, you can positively impact the number of bird fatalities in the UK

 

If you would like to find out how you can incorporate bird friendly glass into your next project, give us a call on 01494 722 880 or email hello@iqprojectsuk.com where our team will be happy to assist.