The GLN Collection. Radiant heating and cooling, shown as six works
GLN
Tall, in chalk, 2026
On view by appointment at the showroom in Wuhan
Heating and cooling that leaves the air still
GLN panels heat and cool a room with water. A heat pump outside warms or cools the water, which then runs through slim aluminium-fin panels like the ones in this room. The walls, floor and ceiling settle at the right temperature, and heat moves between you and those surfaces by radiation instead of by blowing air.
There are no vents and no ducts. Indoors there is no fan and no compressor, so there is no fan noise at night and no air pushed at your neck. The water pipes come down inside the wall from the ceiling and join each panel with a single fitting, so nothing runs across the wall.
The six works below are the same system in different sizes and finishes. They are renders. The showroom in Wuhan has the real panels, running.
The room of works
Hung at the same scale, so you can compare them. Select a work to study it up close.
Gallery walk
The six works along one wall, each with its full label.
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GLN
Tall, in chalk, 2026
Stands where a radiator would, on two slim feet, 90 mm from the wall to its front edge. It heats in winter and cools in summer from the same spot.
Cooling 420 W, heating 510 W (demo figures)
GLN 2026.1
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GLN
Tall, in brass, 2026
The same panel in a warm metal finish. Anodising colours the surface of the aluminium itself rather than adding a coat of paint on top.
Cooling 420 W, heating 510 W (demo figures)
GLN 2026.2
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GLN
Low, in graphite, 2026
Made for the wall under a window: low enough to sit below the sill, long enough to face most of the room.
Cooling 280 W, heating 340 W (demo figures)
GLN 2026.3
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GLN
Column, in natural, 2026
A narrow column for the strip of wall beside a door or between two windows, where a wide panel will not fit.
Cooling 245 W, heating 300 W (demo figures)
GLN 2026.4
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GLN
Square, in bronze, 2026
Sized for a bedroom wall. There is no fan in the room, so there is no fan noise when it runs through the night.
Cooling 315 W, heating 380 W (demo figures)
GLN 2026.5
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GLN
White on white, 2026
Chalk on a white wall, for rooms where the panel should almost disappear. You notice its shadow before the object.
Cooling 260 W, heating 320 W (demo figures)
GLN 2026.6
You feel the walls as much as the air
27°Cair 22°Cwalls 24.5°Cwhat it feels like
The temperature you feel is roughly the average of the air around you and the surfaces you face (ASHRAE 55, ISO 7730). GLN works on the surfaces, so a room can feel cool in a Wuhan July while the air stays still.
Illustrative photograph
Materials and making
Extruded aluminium fins on two water headers, finished by painting or anodising.
Each fin has a rounded profile, 16 mm thick and 76 mm deep, so the panel reads as a set of soft vertical lines rather than a flat sheet. Water runs through the two headers behind the fins; the fins spread its warmth or coolness across a large surface facing the room.
The pipes are never on the wall. They come down inside it from the ceiling and meet the panel at a single fitting behind the top header. No condensation water appears indoors.
Installation drawing, in section. Not to scale.
- Heat pump, outside. The only compressor in the system is here.
- Water pipes run above the ceiling.
- They come down inside the wall, so nothing shows on it.
- One fitting joins the pipes to the panel.
- The panel, 90 mm from the wall to its front edge, on two feet.
- The room itself: no vents, no ducts, and no fan.
Catalogue
Every work in the exhibition. Output is per panel, for heating and cooling.
| No. | Work | Finish | Size, mm | Cooling | Heating | Study |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026.1 | Tall, in chalk | Chalk white, painted | 600 × 1800 × 90 | 420 W | 510 W | |
| 2026.2 | Tall, in brass | Brass, anodised | 600 × 1800 × 90 | 420 W | 510 W | |
| 2026.3 | Low, in graphite | Graphite, painted | 1200 × 600 × 90 | 280 W | 340 W | |
| 2026.4 | Column, in natural | Natural, anodised | 300 × 2100 × 90 | 245 W | 300 W | |
| 2026.5 | Square, in bronze | Dark bronze, anodised | 900 × 900 × 90 | 315 W | 380 W | |
| 2026.6 | White on white | Chalk white, painted | 450 × 1500 × 90 | 260 W | 320 W |
Output figures are demo values for this draft. Other sizes are made to order; the showroom can size panels for a room from its floor plan.
The permanent collection, Wuhan
Every panel in this exhibition hangs in the showroom, connected and running. Wuhan summers are hot and humid and its winters are cold, so come in July to feel the cooling or in January to feel the heating.
- Address
- GLN Showroom, 18 Yanjiang Avenue, Jiang’an District, Wuhan, Hubei
- Open
- Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00, by appointment
- Telephone
- +86 27 8000 0000
- A visit takes
- About 45 minutes, with time to stand beside a running panel