Supreme Court

Elements of Metro GlassTech's work on the Supreme Court building include a glass feature ceiling; an eight-panel dual glazed window, allowing public view into the courtroom from the street; a spiral stair balustrade and enclosure; a glass floor; concourse wall cladding and the library stair.

Contracted by Mainzeal to complete the glazing in Wellington's new $80million Supreme Court building, Metro GlassTech says its finished product "looks great and is a refreshing contrast to the more traditional materials used in other parts of the courtroom."

Metro GlassTech was able to fulfil the design of architect Warren and Mahoney through its one-stop design, to final installation capabilities and its strong relationship with specialist product manufacturers - glass hardware, curved glass and switchable glass - utilising its in-house professionals, also with its highly experienced site management and installation crew.

It says a team effort was necessary to resolve the challenge of the glass feature ceiling. Dimensions taken from the 3D CAD model drawn by the architects enabled the manufacture of a template, allowing a prefit in its Wellington factory.
On the finished product, the 36 blades were fitted to the elliptical steel sub-frame individually, using AGA Swivel fittings and dropper rods at set lengths, achieving the required angle.

The dual-glazed window allowing public viewing was faceted and silicon butt jointed for acoustic purposes. The I-glass on one side, can be changed from clear to opaque with the flick of a switch from the judges' bench.

The ground floor stair balustrade, of 15 millimetre (mm) toughened material, recessed seamlessly into the stone tiles, with seven clear panels curved into a radius, allows clear a clear view of the fibrous plastered spiral stair balustrade.
The spiral stair enclosure used frameless glass, with eight 12mm toughened curved panels, supported in a low profile glazing channel. The frameless top edges were supported by curved 25mm s/s tube with Dorma Manet point fixings, while the associated curved automatic door used a Dorma manet pivot pole system.
The ground floor eliptical orb ceiling, which penetrates the first floor, has a 600m gap around the perimeter. Glass chosen to fill the gap allows a sense of the orb standing alone.

Twenty-eight radially even panels , of 31.5mm were of structural glass to meet the loading of being walked on. The elliptical curvature called for each panel to be individually templated, then digitally photographed to produce a CAD file to be transmitted to Metro Glasstech's auto-cutting lines and CNC processing machinery.
This provided perfect elliptical glass ring-spanning between the floor and the orb wall.

The library stairs are of 12mm curved and straight toughened glass, seamlessly integrated to form free-standing cantilevered glass. Fixed with Metro GlassTech's in-house engineered point-fix system, cover plates hide the glass fixings, creating an effect of glass coming directly out of the structure.