Kalwall's Skylights Featured in the new LEEDS College of Building, United Kingdom

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Jan 22, 2015

One of the key features in our stunning new campus will be its state of the art Kalwall, which will cover a large part of the building’s elevation.

According to Kalwall’s own website, it is the most highly insulating, diffuse light-transmitting, structural composite technology in the world. While this certainly sounds impressive, what does it mean for our building?

In simple terms Kalwall is a translucent, highly insulating, light diffusing material. It absorbs external natural daylight, redistributes it internally and at the same time eliminates glare, hot-spots and shadows.

So, by reducing solar gain and maximising thermal insulation, it provides both cost and environmental benefits.

We selected the Kalwall as an option as we want the workshop areas to benefit from as much natural light as possible, especially where practical tasks are undertaken. The system will reduce the amount of artificial lighting and reduce on going costs.

Although it might appear similar, Kalwall is definitely not a plastic, polycarbonate or glass and is generally considered to be far superior to such products. It is made by permanently bonding, under heat and pressure, specially formulated, fiberglass-reinforced translucent faces to a grid core constructed of interlocked, structural aluminium / composite, thermally broken "I" beams.

This also means that as well as offering unrivalled thermal performance and environmental benefits, it is extremely strong, has high impact resistance, requires minimum maintenance and has excellent fire retardant properties. This makes it ideal for a wide range of applications including wall systems, skylights and as an alternative to traditional glass windows.

Kalwall systems are pre-engineered and factory prefabricated for each individual project so it will arrive on site in panel units that will be installed quickly and easily using the system’s ‘clamp-tite’ technology to lock the panels together.

There’s no doubt it will look fantastic in our new building and help to create a light and healthy building that will make for a fantastic learning environment.

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