A Research Facility Where Daylight Cannot Interfere With the Work
At the National Research Council’s Advanced Materials Research Facility, daylight had to support scientists and sensitive research without the glare, contrast, and visual distraction tall curtain walls can introduce. The answer was not less glass. It was a deliberate division of labour between vision glass, Solera®, and exterior shading.
Project Details
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NRC Mississauga Advanced Materials Research Facility: vertical fins and upper daylighting zones define the research facility façade. |
The Challenge: Precision Work Cannot Accommodate Glare
The NRC facility was designed as a national hub for clean-energy and advanced-materials research. Its laboratory and office spaces needed to support focused, technical work, including enclosed offices at the centre of a deep floor plate. The architectural opportunity was high ceilings and tall curtain-wall zones. The performance risk was equally clear: unfiltered daylight can create glare and contrast that undermine precision tasks.
A Bright Lab Is Not Necessarily a Usable Lab
Standard vision glass could provide the views researchers need, but it could not safely solve every opening. Tall glazing can introduce direct sun and visual discomfort, while a deep plan leaves central spaces dependent on electric light. The design team needed daylight to reach far into the facility without compromising sensitive equipment, screen-based work, or concentration.
The Third Option: Assign Each Material Its Job
Diamond Schmitt did not choose between an opaque wall and a fully glazed façade. Instead, the team combined materials deliberately. Vision glass sits at eye level for views and connection to the outdoors. Solera® occupies the upper curtain-wall zone, where it can use the high ceilings to capture and diffuse daylight deep into laboratories and office areas. Vertical precast concrete fins add solar shading and help disperse light across the façade.
Daylight Modelled Before It Became a Problem
The design was validated through daylight modelling. That gave the project team a way to test the combined performance of vision glass, Solera®, and precast fins before construction—not after researchers had moved into a facility where glare would be expensive and disruptive to correct.
The Proof: Daylight Reaches the Core
The strategy gives daylight a route deeper into the building, including enclosed offices in the centre of the footprint. For a research facility, that is the difference between a façade that merely looks bright from outside and an interior environment designed to perform for the people working inside it.
The Result: More Control for Research, Less Reliance on Electric Light
The completed NRC facility demonstrates that high-performance research environments do not have to choose between daylight and visual control. By separating the jobs of vision glass, Solera®, and exterior shading, Diamond Schmitt created a facility that brings daylight into both laboratory and office areas while respecting the discipline that research work demands.
The Lesson for Precision Environments
Laboratories, healthcare spaces, design studios, and other task-intensive environments need more than a bright façade. They need daylight that is modelled, diffused, and directed to the place it can actually improve the work—without forcing occupants to choose between comfort, focus, and a view.
