Glazing Applications

Our Top 8 Glass Structures

Gravity-defying and ethereal, glass structures are the boldest part of contemporary architecture. These beautiful designs manipulate natural light, frame expansive views, and push the boundaries of structural engineering. Here’s IQ Projects’ top eight glass structures, showcasing just how innovative our glazing can be. Whether you’re looking to create a weightless floating sensation, or introduce a heritage-sensitive addition, these examples give you a taste of what your collaboration with us will achieve. 

The Floating Glass Box: 1st out of our Top 8 Glass Structures 

Scared of heights? Our cantilevered, floating meeting room juts out audaciously past the solid floor, with no visible supports. Massive, frameless panels of glass mean you really notice how high you’re suspended when you look down through the transparent floor! Designed and engineered in-house at the IQ showroom, this perfect 8 x 4m glass cube showcases the remarkable strength and versatility of structural glazing. 

Structural Glass Pavilion: 2nd out of our Top 8 Glass Structures 

Oversized glass panels form a 360° garden pavilion at the University of Oxford’s Rhodes House; a tasteful blend of historic architecture and modern intervention. We enjoyed the technical challenge of handling 5m-tall structural glass units. It amounted to 13 tonnes of glass in total; no wonder we had to install bespoke secondary steelworks and brackets to accommodate it all. Combining a minimal, low-iron glazed perimeter engineered to support the weight of the sweeping timber roof, it captures a clean, uninterrupted view of the mature gardens. 

Structural Glass Pavilion at Plas Glyn: 3rd out of our Top 8 Glass Structures 

Winner of the Stephen Lawrence Prize 2024, this enchanting café, designed by Mark Wray Architects and brought to life with IQ Projects' sophisticated glazing, is an icon of social purpose and restorative design. For our team, it's an all-time favourite. The new café resembles a giant seashell encrusted with 89,000 handcrafted steel “barnacles”, and our Invisio frameless-effect structural glazing creates a magical, light-filled space. The circular openings of the façade create an illusion of circular pieces of glass, yet behind the envelope, they’re actually square panels. Architects love how utilitarian we are with our artistry.

Old Spitalfields Market: 4th out of our Top 8 Glass Structures 

This historic Victorian market in East London was treated to a sensitive refurbishment with our glazing. It’s a stylish confluence of industrial heritage and modern detailing, with minimal framing, low-iron glass and crystal-clear sightlines that shape a spacious shopping experience. Reconciling these modern supplements with a firm alignment to the historical design language of the site, our slim steel-framed windows and doors naturally darken over time, mirroring the industrial, neutral palette of the original 19th-century structure. 

The Wintergarden on Savile Row: 5th out of our Top 8 Glass Structures 

Perched on a London rooftop, this steel-and-glass “winter garden” is a super-trendy breakout area. Fully enclosed, yet with this amount of glass, you feel outdoors. In central London, it’s a welcome oasis of nature that staff can enjoy year-round. With decorative lighting elements, and our Mondrian® steel door system marking the threshold in a galvanised steel powder coating, it deserves this Top 5 ranking. Find the full case study here!

Chicheley Hall: 6th out of our Top 8 Glass Structures 

This enormous glass extension was sensitively engineered for a Grade II listed coach house. Dating way back to the 16th-century, it’s easy to understand our effort to keep this delicate structure pristine. To avoid burdening its weak walls with weight, we devised a bespoke steel substructure to provide lateral support to the glass roof instead. What’s more, the glass façades are faceted to create elegant curves, adding a modern touch of beauty. It’s a technically complex, epic interplay between old and new. 

Tower Vaults: 7th out of our Top 8 Glass Structures 

This London coffee house extension was originally an outdoor café seating area that we’ve enclosed with floor to ceiling glass. Five-meter-long structural glass beams frame the ultimate expanse, with hidden structural supports and frameless pivot doors ensuring the overall effect is streamlined to perfection. You can now you can enjoy a coffee there whatever the weather; solar control coatings keep things comfortable in summer, while the space is filled with light even on rainy days.  

Exeter Cathedral: 8th out of our Top 8 Glass Structures 

Cathedrals are the pinnacle of classic architecture; they’re always exciting to work with, and the standard is extremely high. This is one of England’s most famous. A glass draught lobby is a popular addition to this type of Grade I listed building, specified to regulate internal temperatures more effectively. Whenever working in this context, you need to keep the focus on the building’s story, rather than modern handiwork. Accordingly, our frameless glass atrium fits right in with a Gothic arch, a tasteful timber-framed structure, and frameless pivot doors.

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