Hamad Int’l Airport Doha, Qatar Building Partners through Glass GOING THE DISTANCE: Hartung Glass Industries / Joel Berman Glass Studios Collaborate to Supply Decorative Glass at New International Airport in Qatar When HOK, on behalf of their client NDIA Steering Committee, engaged Joel Berman Glass Studios in 2007 regarding collabora- tion on a project to design and create secure corridor glazing for a new airport project in the Middle East, studio founder and presi- dent Joel Berman quickly grasped the scale of the undertaking. It represented the largest, most ambitious art glass project the studio would undertake in its more than 30 year history. A next generation airport was to be built in Doha, Qatar, and the airport itself was to achieve destination status. The project’s head architect provided his vision: while it was understood that the volume of glass would involve a production effort, each of the three phases was to be a work of art. Functionally, the requirement was for glazing of the secure pas- senger corridors in three airport concourses. The glass was to be patterned in such a way as to obscure the view within the corridor up to eye level height. HOK was familiar with Berman’s work, and approached the studio with the design challenge. While researching concepts, Berman’s senior designer, Saleem Khattak, looked to the geography and cultural history of the region. Drawing from the contemplative art of Islam, Khattak developed a contemporary interpretation of the decorative ara- besque motifs that figured prominently in the region’s architectural history. In these motifs, mathematically precise geometric forms in complex patterns serve to express ideas of beauty and perfection, and symbol- ize humanity’s place in the universe. Khattak developed a series of algorithmi- cally arranged designs using polygonal shapes to convey micro, mezzo and macro patterns depending on the viewing distance. Shapes emerge from the pattern as the viewer moves toward, and away from the art. “While each concourse has its own identity,” Khattak said, “the patterns relate to each other.” To achieve the desired obscurity, the design gradually transi- tions from opaque at the lower portion of each panel through translucency to full transparency at the top. “The spatial in- teraction within the pattern allows light to penetrate while the reflectivity of the frit ink prevents the eye from seeing past it,” observes Khattak. “This effect lends a jewel-like quality to the space.” Joel Berman named the collection of patterns the Unity Series. “Within the studio a diverse team of talented and passionate artists and designers come together from a wide range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds,” said Berman. “We embrace this diversity; it unifies us. There is a message in the glass, and it’s a message of hope: that through the universal language of design the result will have a unifying influence on the lives of those it touches.” “We took on a huge job. It was the biggest project we had ever tackled before,” said Ray Jensen, Seattle Production Manager for Hartung Glass Industries. “Combine that with working with three different locations and to come out as suc- cessfully as we did, it was a big undertaking and is some- thing that we’re proud of.” Approximately 75% of the project was laminated secure cor- ridor glazing for three passenger concourses of Hamad Inter- national Airport and 25% was ¾” monolithic parallelograms for stairwells, escalators and balustrades. ”The project completed was in three phases over three years,” says Hartung Northwest vice president Leon Ander-