The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences building has nine different façade types. The point of difference in the façade is the extensive use of Sefar glass within the curtain walls. This unique glass is in its pioneering stage, with nothing of this scale and complexity ever being completed in Australia.
The Sefar glass consists of an interstitial coated fabric mesh that is laminated in between two sheets of SGP interlayer and glass to form laminated glass panels which can be used in a double-glazed unit. The type of fabric selected for this project was a luminance bronze that provided the main architectural feature of the façade, while also providing better shading co-efficient which allowed for the removal of any shading elements. The Sefar fabric is coated in a special paint in Switzerland and supplied to the fabricators of the glass in rolls ready for lamination under strict guidelines. Sefar glass has a consistently un-uniform finish that appears as tinted glass under indirect light, but with direct sunlight it morphs with movement, creating a lively effect.