True North Wind Tower

THE TRUE NORTH WIND TOWER & LUX NOVA ART GLASS

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Artistic Components

“It [the art glass] enables us to dream about who we can be in this world and how we articulate our stories.”

Sarah Hall, Artist, First Photovoltaic Art Glass in North America

Artist's conception of the new art glass on the Wind Tower, situated above the new library. See our Media Gallery section for a larger version and other images.

Sarah Hall’s new work, integrated into the wind tower is the first installation of photovoltaic art glass in North America.

Commissioned by Regent College, at UBC, the window combines beauty and function to present a powerful message about art, science, and social responsibility.

Embedded in the tower’s window is an array of solar cells, thin silicon and metal squares that convert light into electricity. These collect enough energy to illuminate the wind tower’s beautifully coloured LED lighting system, also designed by the artist.

Dichroic Glass is created by plating very thin layers of metal oxides onto a layer of glass in a vacuum chamber. The combined thickness of all of these layers is less than five millionths of an inch, but together they transform the glass into a rich and varied visual celebration. They do this by creating a “dielectric interference filter” - a sort of selective colour mirror - that perfectly reflects or transmits specified colours.

Those colours that are reflected are perceived by the viewer on one side of the glass, while all of the rest of the light passes through the glass and presents another colour to the other side of the glass. Here it is used as a striking design element, forming the 12 coloured crosses in the window.

The most well-known prayer in the Western world is without a doubt the one Jesus of Nazareth taught his disciples. “The Lord’s Prayer,” as it has been called for twenty centuries now, was first prayed in Aramaic, the “heart language” of the people of first-century Palestine. It is now prayed in hundreds of languages all over the globe. Whether in the face of suffering, or in moments of victory, the words of the “our Father in heaven” have lifted human hearts upward.

Ms. Hall spent some time with the wider Regent College community to get a flavour for the unique spirit found within its walls and beyond. Reflecting upon her time, she envisioned a waterfall. Out of that vision she created a watercolor painting and incorporated the words to the Lord's Prayer atop of it.

Overlapping all these components, the state-of-the-art True North Wind Tower is sure to be a focal point of attraction for many as they pass through the beautiful park.