glass occupies a very special role in the design of buildings and

spaces.throughout history, glass has been used to allow light into the spaces
that we create but the

illumination of our lives has come to mean something far more profound than
just the ability to see.it can emphasize space, material and structure and allow
us to see aspects of construction that have never been seen before .Glass, and
the ability to create more void than solids, has been the primary driver behind
architectural

design for the past 150 years. and now, it has become a material in its own right,
creating, supporting and, of course, illuminating, our lives.

the production of glass for use in an architectural context was not common until
the romans used it from around AD 100.it was a luxury material and was only
used in

the most important of buildings. it took another thousand years, and

developments in manufacturing processes, before glass would be seen regularly
in important

religious and secular buildings. by the eleventh century stained glass had been
discovered which came in general use from twelth century. height and verticality
were seen as being synonymous with moving towards the heavens and the
increased amount of void between the stone allowed for light to flood in, there
was no better option for these spaces to fill with coloured glass, which could be
used to depict religious imagery and stories to largely illiterate population.

hagia sophia, istanbul, turkey, AD 532-537.

( the use of many windows at the base of the main dome not only highlights the
elaborate decoration but gives the impression of the dome floating and the sense
of vastness of the space.)

rose window, notre dame, paris, France, 1250

(an example of an early medieval, christian, stained-glass window.)

palm house, royal botanic gardens, kew, UK, decimus burton, 1848

(the victorians fascination with plant species from around the world and the need
to maintain the habitat made together to construct magnificient glasshouses.
gothic stone was replaced with cast iron allowing, for the first time, the amount
of glass to be greater than the supporting structure.)

what could better exemplify the ideals of modernism than glass and its combined
use with steel and concrete.glass has been inextricably linked to the structural
oppurtunities of steel and RCC, where natural light floods in and illuminates
interiors as never before.

farnsworth house, illinois, USA, by ludwig mies van der rohe,1951

( there is seemingly no wall between interior and the landscape.)

'find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows, the
light and dark which that thing provides.'

JUNICHIRO TANIZAKI

Technology now enables us to use and appreciate the inherent qualities and
structural opportunities that glass brings: it is now being used as a material in its
own right and not just as a window.

Hungerberg railway station, Innsbruck, Austria,2007, by zaha hadid architects

( use of double curvature, thermoformed glass cladding.