Wrightstyle, based in Devizes, is one of

Glass and glazing has come a long way in the past ten years. New threats, new technologies and new fire and building regulations have driven the industry forwards, sometimes in some surprising directions. For Wrightstyle, long recognised as a supplier of both the glass and steel framework, that has meant offering much greater flexibility – supplying either the steel or the glass or fabricating the complete system ourselves.

Like many companies in the industry, we have come a long way. That journey started when we saw the speed of change and recognised that we had to evolve to survive, constantly bringing new products and systems to market and aligning corporate best practice with the expectations of customers. So far so simple: companies that recognise that dynamic process of evolutionary change tend to thrive.

That thinking has become more central at Wrightstyle as we’ve sought to become internationally-recognised for the quality of our specialist glass and glazing systems, together providing internal and external systems ranges that protect against fire, blast and ballistic threat. However, at first, our evolutional thought processes were more about new product development than the dynamics of the market and, ultimately, how modern glass and glazing systems were reshaping architectural practice.

Not that new product development is a bad thing. Far from it and, along the way, we’ve developed innovative and bespoke systems, found export markets in the Middle East and Far East and pushed at the boundaries of what is possible using glass – until fairly recently, a medium simply to let in daylight, rather than an effective barrier against fire, high explosive or high-calibre ordnance.

Rather, by focussing our energies on new products and systems, we weren’t looking at our industry or customer base with a wide-angle lens. When we did, and carried out extensive market research among customers, architects and other specifiers, we began to understand how some fundamental dynamics of our industry had changed.

Simply, glass now sits at a pinnacle of possibilities, with architects increasingly recognising that old concepts about what glass can and can’t do are now outmoded. The protective qualities of modern glazing systems mean that even the most sensitive of buildings can incorporate large quantities of glazing into their designs, and architects now realise this.

That sea-change has come about because of new technologies, some of which we have been at the forefront of, driven by pressures from the market, primarily in response to changing fire regulations and new levels of terrorist threat.

However, alongside the demand for glazing systems that would offer higher levels of protection came requirements for larger and still larger-span systems – systems that were not only fit-for-purpose but aesthetically pleasing, and all requiring test certification to evermore stringent fire and safety standards. Developing those systems has taken time, effort and enormous investment.

However, while the glass industry was looking inwards at new product development, glass, the architecture of the window, had slowly become a building material that not only defines exterior design and interior space, but a protective and environmentally-flexible medium to control heat-emission, UV balance and unforeseen threat. Glass, once just another building material, had become the building material.

At Wrightstyle, we recognised the scope and scale of the changes that glazing technologies were bringing; yet while glass and glazing systems were successfully evolving to meet changing market demands, the glass industry was not. While glass, the age-old Cinderella had evolved into the defining material of modern architecture, we were still operating to a business model that was gradually becoming obsolete.

For example, while we have built our business on supplying complete systems that incorporate both the glass and steel framing system, we did not offer our range of glasses as a separate product range, despite the fact that our glass range offers the full spectrum of integrity and insulation against fire, let alone other threats. So, as a systems supplier, our thinking went, we are in the business of providing a total, rather than a partial, solution.

However, the changing place of glass in the architectural lexicon forced us to rethink our strategy and look at how we could better position ourselves across the international markets in which we operate. It seemed to us that, first and foremost, we had to align ourselves with the changing demands of the market, however much that challenged our established thinking. That led us, first, to horizontally extend our product range to include glass.

Now, we have changed the integration axis, and vertically included fabrication in our product and service range. Once again, this followed extensive market analysis that concluded that, in some cases, cost to the customer was being driven upwards because the supply chain was too long. By reducing its length, we can guarantee quality at each stage and reduce cost.

Taken together, it gives us the ability to supply our range of customers with a flexible solution – be it for a glazing system, the glass only, or the fabricated end product.

That kind of integration and evolution may not seem like rocket science but, in a risk-averse and conservative industry, it is merely one step for us along a continuous customer-focussed journey.

Moreover, it is based on one fundamental and far-reaching fact, and one that the glass and glazing industry has been slow to recognise: developments in glass and glazing technology have changed the perceptions of architects who, in turn, are changing the landscape of our towns and cities. From being mere suppliers of a building material, the glass and glazing industry is at the forefront in shaping the future.

That will, increasingly, mean structural changes within the glass and glazing industry. We can either embrace those market forces, and evolve, or ignore them. The only certainty, I’m sure, is for more and faster change. The Bronze and Iron Ages came first. We now live in a new Glass Age in which nothing is impossible any more.