In 2007 we were awarded the prestigious contract to glaze the Nokia Media Towers at British Airways flagship new Terminal 5 building.

The package combined our unique skills as both architectural glass installers and 2 part structural silicone specialists.

Each panel is free from mechanical fixings, instead using a system comprising a first fix framework with halfen channels and a secondary channel structurally bonded to the glass panels. The glass was fixed in both normal flat portrait position and perpendicular to the Tower, giving the effect of ‘fins’.

Due to the large number of each type of panel, we produced jigs for each arrangement and laid them out in our factory, so we could ensure that the panels were bonded identically every time.

As a company, Vision Design always strives for best practice, we noted that the design of the panels did not incorporate any dead load support. Even though the system was not our design, with bonded panels held in sheer, we would always have a form of dead load support, so we designed a very unobtrusive support system, that performed as required but wasn’t visible to the naked eye.

These 5 Media Towers are a striking visual feature of the renowned Richard Rogers design at Terminal 5.