Architecture Class: Glass

Glass has always fulfilled it's most basic function through providing reflections or becoming windows. It wasn't until recently in the twentieth century when glass was finally being considered and used as a building material for the creation of structures. The first extensive use of glass in buildings was first developed by the Romans. Through the combination if cast and wrought iron, then later steel, the glass could become a building material and be used in the development of glasshouses, market halls, arcades, and other structures as well. For example in the Sainte Chapelle in Paris it contains so many stained windows that it gives off the vibe that heaven is this city of light. Norman Foster, a renowned architect, fulfilled the The Modernist dream of an all-glass curtain in 1975. The name of the building was the Willis Faber Dumas Building in Ipswich, England. Through glass the transparency effect has been achieved because it gave a way of revealing the "truth" in the structure.

"Broken Glass"