By Jay Fox

We recently hosted Solveig Rey of Cascadia Windows & Doors for a Component Spotlight that centered on Cascadia’s innovative fiberglass windows and their award-winning Window Wall. As Solveig explained, Cascadia is best known for their fiberglass Universal Series™ windows, but their catalog of products goes far deeper and includes fiberglass cladding attachments (the Cascadia Clip®) and the Universal Series™ Window Wall, which is the world’ first fiberglass window wall product and the winner of the 2024 Architizer A+ Product Award.

In addition to describing these products, Solveig also provided some real-world examples of their application that we’ll explore below.

Cascadia at a Glance

Cascadia’s high-performance fiberglass windows, doors, and cladding support systems offer exceptional thermal and structural performance in conjunction with design versatility, making them ideal for larger Passive House projects like commercial and multifamily high-rises. Since being founded by a collective of building science and window specialists in 2008, Cascadia’s guiding principles have centered on using building science to create the most energy-efficient fenestration systems on the market. Their Universal Series™ includes punch and strip windows, as well as window wall and storefront glazing. From residential to high-rise applications, Cascadia’s commitment to innovation positions it as a key partner for architects and designers pushing the envelope of energy efficiency and building certification.

More than just an innovator within the windows and doors market, Cascadia views themselves as a technology company that is helping to lead North America in its transition to a cleaner and greener economy. By using fiberglass frames, Cascadia’s products offer a combination of strength and thermal efficiency, while also having a lower amount of embodied carbon when compared to vinyl or aluminum (for more embodied carbon information, check out Cascadia’s Environmental Product Declarations [EPDs]). Based in Langley, British Columbia, Cascadia’s products are sourced, manufactured, and assembled in North America, while also being Red List free and Energy Star rated.

Fenestration and Passive House Design

Windows and doors are notoriously the weakest links in building envelopes and regularly account for anywhere between 30–50% of heating and cooling losses within a building. More than just creating drafts and contributing to higher utility bills, inefficient windows can also lead to worse indoor air quality, poor noise control, and poor moisture management. Eventually, this can mean mold. High-performance fenestration products like those manufactured by Cascadia prevent these issues by aligning with the principles of Passive House, which champions continuous insulation and thermal bridge-free design. To better reduce heat transfer and ensure there is a strong thermal barrier around the entire building, windows and doors in Passive House buildings have triple glazing, though double glazing may be suitable in more temperate climates.

Of course, meeting Passive House criteria with windows involves more than just choosing products with low U-values. Designers must also consider airtightness while also optimizing solar heat gains so that interior spaces stay cozy in winter but do not overheat once the seasons change. To achieve these ends, double- and triple-pane models are outfitted with soft low-E coatings, gas fills, and advanced spacers. Airtight seals and multi-point locking further contribute to meeting air leakage thresholds.

To minimize thermal bridging, Cascadia embeds continuous insulation directly into their frame designs and the frames themselves act as the thermal breaks. Their frames are engineered with deep profiles that allow the glazing unit to sit further into the insulated zone, decreasing linear thermal transmittance, and their multi-gasket seal systems ensure that the windows do not become weak points in the enclosure’s air barrier.

Cascadia also carefully controls glass selection and spacer configuration, offering triple-glazed units with customized low-E coatings and warm-edge spacers that optimize solar heat gain and minimize thermal loss. These configurations are chosen to align with Passive House design software.

Another benefit of using fiberglass is that it is extremely durable and can continue performing as expected for decades. Whereas the typical lifespan of vinyl windows is 20 years and aluminum windows typically last 40, the lifespan of fiberglass windows is up to 80 years! More than simply reducing the financial costs associated with replacing a building’s windows, using fiberglass frames also reduces its total embodied carbon over the long run.

Case Studies of Cascadia Products in the Real World

To illustrate how Cascadia’s windows systems can contribute to project success, Solveig showcased several high-profile buildings that have used Cascadia product, including the Gastown Child Care Center (Vancouver, BC), Čeqʷəŋín ʔéʔləŋ (Cheko’nien House) at the University of Victoria (Victoria, BC), PAE Living Building (Portland, OR), Gladstone Village Social Housing (Ottawa, ON), Meridian Cove (Vancouver, BC), Coal Harbor Phase 2 (Vancouver, BC), and the Ken Soble Tower (Hamilton, ON).

Given space constraints, we’ll focus on the Ken Soble Tower and Coal Harbor Phase 2, which will allow for a deeper discussion about Cascadia’s Universal Series™ Window Wall in this post. You can jump right to the discussion of the other case studies by clicking on the below video.

Cascadia assisted the design teams for both the Ken Soble Tower and Coal Harbor Phase 2 because both struggled with thermal bridging issues and balconies. In the case of the Ken Soble Tower (one of the largest Passive House retrofits [EnerPHit] in the world), the original balconies were deemed too cumbersome and detrimental to overall performance, so they were chopped off completely and replaced by Juliet balconies. The Juliet balconies were provided by a third-party, but Cascadia worked with both the supplier and the design team to integrate them into the Universal Series™ windows systems.

Meanwhile, the design team for the Coal Harbor project, which is new construction and will be the largest Passive House certified project in BC once it is completed later this year, collaborated with the Cascadia technical team to create a truly unique fenestration system. This system includes Cascadia’s new Juliet balconies, which are fully integrated with Cascadia’s Universal Series™ inswing windows and doors and come equipped with a SGP laminated glass guardrail.

However, Coal Harbor is also a showcase of Cascadia’s Universal Series Window Wall, a high-performance, full facade glazing system. The Window Wall uses the design principles of the Universal Series™ and is comprised of continuous glazing that includes opaque and vision areas similar to a curtainwall. Unlike a curtain wall system, Window Wall rests on the slab. The Window Wall system is also created in a factory setting, meaning that it can be delivered to the site in unitized pieces and quickly put into place. Some of the spans for the Window Wall system can be as large as 13-15 feet!

Key Takeaways

The real-world case studies described by Solveig highlight Cascadia’s ability to tailor window solutions that factor in performance goals, climate, building typology, and budget, among other factors. The component spotlight revealed Cascadia’s versatility with a range of high-performance models that include casement, tilt-and-turn, sliding, and outswing/inswing windows systems and doors.

Design teams will find that Cascadia delivers value, durability, and performance while enabling them to meet stringent performance goals without compromising aesthetics or functionality.

👉 Watch the full recording here to learn more Cascadia’s Universal Series™, projects mentioned above, and to see the lengthy audience Q+A.