Asahi Glass will start manufacturing Lacobel, the No. 1 brand of painted glass in Europe, at its Kashima Plant (Kamisu City, Ibaraki Prefecture), aiming to introduce the brand throughout Japan. Making use of a palate of colors with a world’s favorite European taste, AGC will offer colors, textures, and ambiances that have not been available in Japan. Painted glass is produced by adding paint coating to glass, which has a unique hard texture and reflectivity, to give interiors beautiful, deep tones.
In Europe, where the colored glass market is said to be 30 times larger than that in Japan, painted glass is widely used not only in shops and offices but also in homes, for example, in living areas as a wall panel from which marks and scribbles can be wiped off easily.
Lacobel is used at the entrance and the shop of Ichihara Lakeside Museum in Chiba Prefecture, which was reopened in August 3, 2013. Clear red glass is used in the museum shop not only for the wall but also for display stands, which were produced jointly with Cassina ixc. In October 2013, AGC will launch a full 16-color lineup of Lacobel glass, which will surely satisfy the needs of designers.
