New Glass Architecture

Book excerpt: A timely look at the ways in which glass is utilized in some of today's most beautiful and experimental building designs For centuries, glass has provoked fascination with its properties as a versatile material that permits light to enter buildings in spectacular ways. Much of modern architecture has been conceived by using glass to create increasingly minimal structures, to promote the notion of lightweight construction solutions, and to allow maximum daylight into buildings. New Glass Architecture showcases the changing ways that aesthetics and methods for using glass have been developing since the 1990s. The book begins with an introduction that traces the history of key moments in glass architecture--from the stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral to the Crystal Palace of 1851, and early constructions by John Soane, Bruno Taut, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe. Author Brent Richards explains the importance of glass artists in the second half of the 20th century and describes developments in glass technology over the last twenty years. Beautifully illustrated with newly commissioned photographs by Dennis Gilbert, the book features twenty-five case studies of recent glass constructions from around the world by such leading architects as Foster and Partners, Frank Gehry, Herzog & de Meuron, Steven Holl, Toyo Ito & Associates, Jean Nouvel, Raphael Viñoly, and Peter Zumthor. Each building is illustrated in full color and accompanied by detailed drawings. New Glass Architecture features these buildings and more: - Chapel of Ignatius, Seattle - Condé Nast Café, New York - DZ Bank, Berlin - Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia - Kunsthaus, Graz, Austria - Laban Dance Centre, London - Torre Agbar, Barcelona