Contemporary glass architecture at British Library features DORMA MANET

The new Business & IP Centre at the British Library in London opened to the public in March of this year. Constructed within one of the existing reading rooms, the Centre provides a new and unique resource for small and medium-sized business entrepreneurs to network and benefit from the British Library’s information collection and specialist advisers. In addition, the Centre acts as a gateway to the Library’s other resources, such as its vast image bank, the sound archive and scientific and technical research.

It is the first completed architectural project in the building since it opened in 1997 and the concept acknowledges a new generation of inventors and entrepreneurs, who will be drawn to a contemporary environment, but one that still retains the brand values and unique knowledge resource of the British Library.

Eldridge Smerin Architects (www.eldridgesmerin.com) have used glass and colour to striking effect in the new Centre and the DORMA MANET frameless architectural glass door system plays a large part in this. There is a transitional area for networking and informal meetings between the public foyer and the Reading Room and an innovative long glass wall separates this space from the Workshop Studios. The frameless glass walls and doors of the studios looking onto the reading room incorporate a unique film, manufactured in Japan, which changes in transparency as it is viewed from different angles. This translucency achieves a degree of privacy to the users of the rooms as well as providing a visually compelling design.

Five MANET pivoting doors are fitted in the area, two in the glass screen between the Network area and the Reading Room and three to the entrances of the Workshop Studios, which are for seminars, meetings and workshop sessions. The functionality and optical features of the MANET pivoting doors, with their subtle flush mounting single-point fixings and frameless swing doors, allow maximum architectural freedom. In addition to the pivot rod, the system comprises bottom pivots, top pivot fittings with pivot or eccentric bushing and overpanel sidelight connectors. This offers almost limitless possibilities for installing frameless pivoting doors in wall openings – even with glass overpanels and sidelights – and in glass partition wall assemblies with single-point fixings. The MANET pivoting door system is suitable for double-action, or single action doors and both types of door can be fitted with floor springs or concealed overhead closers when used in a wall opening.

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