In the third installment of a Catalyst Community series, we'll learn about the environmentally friendly properties of windows.

This week's instructor is Paul Haselhuhn, a Midland resident who also happens to be the president of WTA (Wigen Tincknell Associates), an architectural firm that was originally founded in Saginaw in 1947. They specialize in architectural design, which includes commercial, education, healthcare display cabinet door, governmental, and other types of buildings and structures. Haselhuhn has been a member of the WTA since its inception in 1998. As a project manager, he has worked on a wide range of projects and has developed a specialization in higher education and commercial facilities.
 

Catalyst Community: The Environmentally Friendly Character of Windows
 

WTA Architects' President, Paul Haselhuhn, discusses the firm's work.

Because we spend up to 90% of our lives indoors, it is a fact that we must acknowledge. The majority of us, on the other hand, are driven to be outside. Nature and the sun provide us with physical and emotional benefits, whether we are aware of it or not, whether in the form of display cabinet door. Taking a walk in the woods, it has been said, is the most effective way to find religion because it is more natural than going to church. Architect Alden B. Dow embraced this concept not only in his design of places of worship, but also in his overall approach to architecture. Glass was a common element in Dow's designs, and it served as a means of connecting the interior with the exterior.

WTA Architects is led by Paul Haselhuhn, who serves as its president.

Glazing, that transparent component of a building's envelope that connects us to our surroundings, is one of the most environmentally friendly elements in architecture. It has an effect on energy consumption, ventilation display cabinet insulated glass door, and occupant health.

In many ways, this is more important than any other sustainable feature that a building can incorporate.

For many years prior to the installation of mechanical and electrical systems, openings in a building's envelope—whether they were filled with glazing or not—served as the primary source of light, ventilation, cooling, and even assisted in the heating of a structure's interior. display cabinet insulated glass door architects used to take advantage of these characteristics when they were first introduced. However, with a few notable exceptions, we have largely overlooked the advantages of a building's glazing over the last century. The introduction of electric lighting and HVAC systems has conditioned us to cram heating and cooling into a building, forcing fresh air in while forcing contaminated air out, and artificially lighting the interior to make spaces usable in order to be productive.

As a result of the energy crisis of the 1970s, many architects and building owners reacted by focusing their attention on glazing as the primary source of energy loss in a building, which exacerbated the situation. And it was a simple target display cabinet insulated glass door to hit.

The First United Methodist Church is a place of worship for people of all faiths.

In recent years, Low-E technology has advanced significantly, double-pane, argon-filled insulated quisure insulated glass has become the industry standard, and warm-edge spacer technology has propelled glazing forward to catch up with the rest of the building envelope in terms of efficiency and performance. Choosing higher-performing glazing for a building can have a quick payback, even if the initial cost is higher. In some cases, the payback can be as little as a couple of years after the purchase. Having said that, the glazing on a building is still the weakest point in terms of energy loss.

Fortunately, many of today's architects are returning to the principles of sustainable design that they have been using for centuries to create their work. Rather than being afraid of insulated glass (IGU), we are learning to appreciate its benefits to a building's space, implementing time-tested principles of how to control solar gain and energy loss through the orientation of a building on its site, and employing properly designed overhangs, light shelves, and sunshades to help reduce heat gain and energy loss.