The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, was founded in 1930. There are many century-old buildings known as historic buildings, among which the most iconic is Fuld Hall. Scientific giants such as Einstein and Zhenning Yang worked there in the past. More recently, though, Rubinstein Commons was crafted here, with prism glass supplied by Tianjin NorthGlass.
Rubinstein Commons has curved walls and roofs, and its design relies on the spacious skylight and glass walls to complete the intersection between the volume. The large-face ultra-wide prism glass façade provided by Tianjin NorthGlass interweaves science, physics, humanities and art and echoes the mission of the institute. The mottled sunlight, green pools and surrounding scenery reflect into the building through the prism glass, which also refracts the white light into an interesting chromatograph, adding vitality to the interior.
Because the prism glass of this project is a super-wide groove with large plate surface glass, and it is heterogeneous, the groove carving process is very difficult, and the processing is not easy to control. In order to perfectly present the design effect of the building, NorthGlass innovated and studied the groove carving process, and solved the bow bending problem caused by the polishing of the ultra-wide groove and the stress released after the groove engraving. The final prism glass is transparent and bright through the process research and practical test, and the glass prism effect was perfectly presented.
The building form is the interwoven with the landscape so that courtyard landscape and architecture cast beautiful reflections, making nature and culture align in harmony. Rubinstein Commons has a variety of flexible meeting spaces to support IAS campus community and academic life, and it will also serve as a display place used to show the institute of history, contribution and academic community pictures and materials.
NorthGlass has always adhered to the “craftsman spirit,” maintained the ultimate pursuit of glass quality, focusing on dedication, excellence, abiding by its original heart, and believing in ingenuity, perseverance, always maintained the heart of a craftsman, carried forward the craftsman spirit to boost China’s creation.