Here comes the sun: CRÉATION BAUMANN

It’s that time of year again. Sun pours through the window almost horizontally as the transition between winter and spring in the northern hemisphere slowly unfolds. The days are getting longer but the sun is still low. For one, maybe two hours, the room is flooded with light, only for it to darken rapidly as the sun falls towards the horizon.

People who work in the south-west corners of buildings may be familiar with this little quandary: Do you let the sunlight in, squint and enjoy the sunlight, or close the curtains or blinds so you can see the picture on your screen?

Ideally, it should be possible to combine these two scenarios and with its GLARE & HEAT collection, this is exactly what Swiss manufacturer of specialist textiles Création Baumann does. With a total of 15 products available in over 90 colours, the collection gathers an existing range of high-quality textiles for glare and heat protection together with new additions, including their FACE and CLOUD fabrics.

With these new products, the manufacturer demonstrates how it’s possible to approach the topic of light and energy transmission in an innovative way, in order to circumnavigate the less practical effects of natural light. For one, in the case of strong sunlight, for example, the GLARE & HEAT collection fabrics reduce radiant heat, thus making a considerable contribution to improving the climate of the room.

Eliane Ernst, Product Manager at Création Baumann, explains how it works: ‘Three key factors are decisive for us: transmission, reflection and absorption. You have to think of how these values change as daylight varies.’ The challenge was to develop a transparent fabric ‘that takes these three factors into account so that light enters the room in a controlled way.’

And how did Création Baumann manage this? ‘By creating different surfaces in our fabric. It basically has two sides, one of which is mostly metallised with aluminium,’ explains Eliane Ernst. ‘The advantage of this is that when the sun hits the metallised rear of the fabric, a large part of the visible light, and its energy, is reflected. The transmission is less than that of white fabric. It's still a bright fabric, but some of the light has been regulated so that the textile is no longer so bright and blinding.’

The double-sided fabric, FACE, which is available in six neutral colours, combines a shiny white reflective outer side with a dark printed inner side. ‘In this way, we create a lot of reflection and high transmission without any metallisation at all,’ Eliane Ernst explains.

CLOUD, on the other hand, is less technical and more homely. Thanks to its structured flame yarn, the fabric has a particularly natural look, but is aluminium-metallised on the reverse side, which ensures a high level of reflection. Available in five colours, the fabric creates a comforting ambience and is therefore particularly suitable for the home office.

Two perfect examples of the versatile application of the GLARE & HEAT collection are the Sukagawa Community Center tette in Sukagawa City, Fukushima, and the headquarters of Reaktor, a design and technology company based in Helsinki. In Japan, the interiors behind the large-format glass facade had to be protected from light and heat radiation. In addition, acoustically effective textiles – as well as other fabrics from the Swiss manufacturer – were utilised for the purposes of partitioning the interior space. The curtains in the Finnish project, on the other hand, were applied primarily in order to help create a homely feel.

It’s no secret that offices are increasingly being designed in ways that provide more homely atmospheres, while homes are also becoming the primary location for many people’s daily work. And this is precisely where the collection's particular strength lies, namely in managing to combine function with atmosphere, and the technological with the natural. Création Baumann’s innovative fabrics are equally suited to both environments – office or home office.

All GLARE & HEAT fabrics are available in widths of 285 to 300 cm. They are flame retardant and carry the OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 sustainability label for textiles tested for harmful substances.

That is not all, however. Good glare- and heat protection pays off in other ways too. Integrated at an early phase in the planning of glass and solar protection projects, the GLARE & HEAT collection can be used to positively influence the overall energy efficiency of a building, while light and solar values, tested in accordance with DIN EN procedures, are available to specialist planners for making light and energy calculations.

Bring on the summer, in that case.

© Architonic