Abingdon School Chapel has been a project nine years in the making and was completed just over a week ago. This project was a unique opportunity in ecclesiastical architecture, as it is one of the few complete re-fits occuring in Britain’s ancient Christian places of worship and as such, it was not a chance Nick would pass by lightly. The earliest work we did on the project was finished in 2004 and constituted nine Altar windows. The remaining windows that we have just installed fullfil Nick’s vision for windows which not only beautify the space, but have a pastoral function, teaching the boys about how their lives at the school relate to their god.

With his unique style and dedication to the Christian faith Nick has put himself at the forefront of ecclesiastical design in Britain and we are delighted to take part in his vision.

We will be covering more of Abingdon School Chapel in a future blog installment, where we will talk more about Nick and Davia’s relationship, the function of the windows and the technical qualities behind the work, and most importantly be featuring more images of these beautiful windows!

We have worked on a wide array of private properties all over the world and the heightened feeling of responsibility you get when interpreting such a personal vision never wavers. Your motivation can go far beyond the need to make the best glass designs, produce a beautiful piece of glass art, or maintain your reputation in a competitive industry. It can take you into a space where it becomes difficult to extract yourself from the feeling of “would I really be happy with this in my own home?” Even if you don’t personally like a design, the need to take it to what might be an unattainable level is ever present.

The following images show one of our most recent private home projects. Unusually, it was local to us and the client had a unique vision of what was needed. We are often proud of our ability to create something that helps invest a space with that intense personal and private beauty that is the hallmark of a great home. Here we can say, with confidence, that we did that.

Thomas Walmsley.

In order to make such a considerable structure sound our team of technicians had to do more than simply supply toughened safety glass. Each tread plate is in fact made from three separate panels of glass, laminated together. In this case, due to the heavily textured surface of the kiln formed design, we were unable to use our preferred EVA laminating method. This meant us using a process called “cold pour” lamination; whereby liquid resin is sandwiched between two or more glass panels. This process can be tricky, but it allowed us to bond the heavily textured surface of the kiln formed glass to the flat safety glass that supports it.

Going to these lengths meant that the stairs in Joseph’s Well are as safe as they are impressive; especially with LED lighting along the back edge of each tread casting a serous light through the stairs. In addition the same patterned glass was used for 3 metre high office doors and, as a first for us, lead crystal rod was used as hand railing.

Despite the production hurdles we managed to supply just what the client wanted, so much so that a subsequent boardroom table, in the same style, was ordered immediately afterwards.

If we say so ourselves, we were impressed by the finished scheme and we hope you are too.

If you have any questions regarding this, or any other project, please get in touch with us.

Warm regards,

The Daedalian Team.

[Show as slideshow]

One of our current projects is at a converted clothing factory in Leeds, manufacturing a new kiln formed glass design for glass stair treads, glass doors, glass boardroom table and glass reception desk.
This project is due to be completed soon, more blog entries and photographs to follow

Our glass-work in the Beaufort Bar at the Savoy Hotel made a brief appearence on Saturdays’ Strictly Come Dancing, when Anita Dobson and her partner Robin Windsor were filmed dancing in the famous London hotel.

You can see them on BBC iPlayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b016p9z1/Strictly_Come_Dancing_Series_9_Week_4/

It’s about 1 hr 20 minutes in…..

We were recently specified by ARA Design, London for glass design at the new Hilton Hotel, Baku, Azerbaijan.

We supplied 750 laminated glass panels from our Sheer Delight range. They are curved and used to clad the concrete support columns in the hotels’ reception area.

Hopefully we’ll have some photographs of the finished work soon

We have been away from newsletters and blog posts for the last couple of months while we prepare for today. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the new Daedalian Glass Design website!

As part of our ongoing efforts to bring to you more superior products and services, we are excited to offer the design community an all new website with all new features! Along with some original elements, like the products and design service section there are two important new sections.

You can now get to know the team here at Daedalian, by way of our new Profile page. In this section you can find out a little bit about the senior staff here, as well as profiles for our Associate Artists; the highly creative people who work in other media with whom we collaborate repeatedly, to great effect.

Another new insight is our Technical page. Here you can find information regarding the manufacturing capabilities and limits of many forms of glass working. We hope this section will provide a resource for Architects, Designers and private individuals alike, to get a better idea of how we can help them and where our glass might best be applied. We are always on the end of the phone, or email, for specific enquiries, but we want to offer not just the visual delights of our glass, but the knowledge to better understand the material.

Beyond these main updates we have streamlined the interface, making the site clearer to understand and navigate, with a clean, light design.

We are really pleased with the way it has all turned out and we hope you will be too. If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please get in touch and let us know.

Daedalian were contacted in the Autumn of 2008 by local architect Gerald Barrett who, working with the Dean of Chelmsford Cathedral , The Very Reverend Peter Judd, sought Daedalian for their reputation for innovative and contemporary glass design and a long association with religious art of all denominations. The brief was to produce a glass screen to help create one of the Cathedral Chapels into a more secluded area for private prayer, while still maintaining a sense of openness.

St Cedd’s Chapel is where Morning Prayer is said and the Eucharist is celebrated each day. Throughout the day the Chapel is open for private prayer and is unexpectedly placed at the back of the Cathedral.  Because of its position it enables people to slip in and out anonymously and is the reason the Chapel is so often used and the candle stand, where people light their candles with their prayers, never goes out.

Dean Judd had always liked the chapel, but felt it could use some improvement. “The Chapel is brilliantly accessible, but has always felt a bit exposed. We thought carefully about how we could make the Chapel feel more enclosed, without making it feel exclusive”

After a period of consultation, wherein Daedalian produced a variety samples to create the desired effect, the popular Chiffon Organic laminated glass design was settled on, the benefit of which was three fold: To achieve a subtle, but definite sense of privacy, decrease sound intrusion from the rest of the Cathedral and to form a sympathetic visual confluence with the existing Guiseppe Lund sculpted bronze railings. Along with fulfilling the the primary criteria, it was also hoped that Daedalian could achieve the project brief with a minimum of mechanical fixings, as the dean and architect had seen done by Daedalian previously, at Great Missenden Church.

To do this, each panel was bolted to the ground, below floor level, with stainless steel clamps; perpendicular fins were bonded to body of the screens, as opposed to using mechanical fixings, to hold the panels together. Daedalian worked closely with DP Squared Structural Engineering to make absolutely certain that the system they devised would give the necessary rigidity and structural stability, while keeping a light and open feel for the overall scheme. To finish, each door was fitted with 350mm long lead crystal pull handles, again helping to keep the amount of metal fixtures and fittings to a minimum.

[Show as slideshow]

The project was completed in late 2010 and more than fitted the bill for the congregation of Chelmsford Cathedral, as Dean Judd points out; “The new glass screens with their lines of folded cloth, which mirror the bronze bars, do just what we hoped. They enclose the Chapel and make it feel secure and special, without compromising the sense of openness and accessibility. This is a scheme that has worked out brilliantly. What we set out to do has been achieved and more; a special chapel has been made more so and its ‘presence’ has been enhanced by the beautiful and fitting work done by Daedalian Glass Design.”

Setting off from Westminster Abbey cycling the 65 miles to St Nicholas Church in Islip, Oxfordshire. It turned out to be a beautiful spring day cycling through the Chilterns to Great Missenden and then onto Islip. There were some 100 cyclists in all and the journey took about 7 hours with several welcome refreshment stops manned by volunteers from the church. We are quite new to cycling and were somewhat apprehensive at first – there are some big hills in the Chilterns, a bit tough going up but exhilerating coming down. This wasn’t a race, of course, so we took our time and felt remarkably well at the finish, this could become quite addictive! And what a very pleasant surprise as we climbed up the last short hill to St Nicholas’s Church to clapping and cheering onlookers, this must be like “Le Tour”
A thoroughly enjoyable day, we can only thank the good people of Islip for their support and hospitality and wish them great success with their fund raising efforts.

Anyway, back to work, we have a very big screen to make!!

[Show as slideshow]