Glass Construction Manual, Hardly any other building material can match the current immense popularity of glass among architects and engineers. Glass has witnessed a long period of evolution in architecture – from the solid, plain wall to the see-through and light-permeable outer skin.
A material that gives us the chance to erect transparent, open and
seemingly weightless buildings alters the correlation between interior and exterior, the relationship between humankind, space, light and nature. It is not difficult to understand why glass has such a high priority as an architectural medium. The property of being able to “capture” the warmth of the sun within the building was still a major problem at
the beginning of the 20th century as new structural solutions were being
explored, and the desire arose to reach beyond the confining walls of our constructions. Today, we have many many different options available for the intelligent control and admission
of the right amount of light and heat into our buildings.
And glass is increasingly being used as a loadbearing element by the structural engineer – considerably reducing reducing the proportion of bulky supporting construction. The latest thin-film
coatings make it possible to have low-emission and solar-control glasses that also permit optimum transparency.