Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols.

204-208 (2012) pp 3859-3862 Online: 2012-10-26

© (2012) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.204-208.3859

New applications of glass materials in buildings

Chao Zhang1, a, Jie Wan1, b, Zhenhua Wang1, c

1
School of Architecture, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, China
a
zhangchao301@126.com, bxianwanjie@126.com, czhenghua20002000@163.com

Keywords: glass; Building materials; energy-saving application

Abstract: With the development of economy, architectural form constantly update and
development. High-rise buildings, long-span buildings, and Giant buildings are constantly
emerging. Building function becomes more and more complicated and diverse. Furthermore,
people's aesthetic requirement continues to improve, which makes the glass more and more widely
used in public building. Because it is lightweight and transparent, glass has received more and more
architect's favor in the modern architecture design.

The Instructions of glass

The glass of various kinds and the classification methods of glass are varied. The first is to meet
people's requirements, that is to say, building is mainly to meet the practical application. According
to use the glass can be divided into the following several kinds:
Plate glass: Because it is transparent, plate glass always serves as building doors, windows and
the display window, ect.
Functional glass: This glass has the ability of absorbing or reflecting UV light, light control or
electronic control color, absorbing or reflecting heat and other properties. Functional glass is mainly
used as building doors and windows of high level.
Glass block: This is a kind of bulk glass products that can be used for roof or wall, etc.
Safety glass: Because of its high strength, impact resistance and broken people without the risk
of injury and other features, this glass can be used for building windows, doors, balcony corridor,
curtain walls, etc.
Decorative glass: During to its surface and optical effects of color patterns and other
characteristics, this glass always serves as building floor and facade.

New applications of glass in buildings

Load-bearing glass. Glass in regular use is just simple maintenance structure, with its transparency
to the lighting and generally does not bear the gravity. However, with the in-depth understanding of
the characteristics of glass, People aware that the glass, while more easily broken, can withstand
great pressure. According to this characteristic, people began to try to use glass to withstand gravity.
With glass instating of the metal or concrete load-bearing elements, interior space will become
more transparent and open. Meanwhile, this approach will blur support structure. Such results have
the very big attraction to the architect pursing building quality.
In the Hopkins Wade glass museum expansion project (Fig.1), the all-glass load-bearing
structure is used. The glass facing , length 11 m, 3.5m high , has not been discovered the metal
transom. Glass columns and glass beams are resin laminated structure of synthetic rubber. Glass
beam 300mm, long 5.7m, The front-end along the glass floors of the buildings by mortise and tenor,
with the columns together to form a solid framework figure, the back-end is supported in the brick

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3860 Progress in Industrial and Civil Engineering

wall beam bay. Beam with beam interval 1.1 m and the glass roof is composed of glass panels 1.1m.
Roof of the inner laminated safety glass and the outer layer of glass coated with glaze, which
playing a shading effect and reducing the thermal loss, Solar energy control glass in Building façade
further reducing the heat loss.

Fig. 1 Hopkins Wade Glass Museum

Insulating glass. Insulating glass was first used to meet the building's insulation, heat insulation,
sound insulation and other requirements. By keeping certain air intercalated bed in the two layers of
glass, it can block the air flow between the layers. The two layers of glass can be the same or
different. It can be an ordinary glass or glass processed. Something appears to do not exist between
any of insulating glass; in fact, meeting the building requirements by "placing" still air. According
to this principle, the architects can place anything between the glass layers to meet the specific
needs of the building which can be actual needs also may be needs for visual perception.
United States of Iowa, Des Moines public library (Fig.2) was designed by David Chipperfield, the
building's maintenance structure is a combination plate which consists of two layers of glass
sandwiching a thin layer of copper. Copper mesh is placed to meet the needs of building sunshade;
what’s more, it can reduce the glare and the heat entering the room, thereby reducing energy
consumption. Seen from the outside, the building seems to be closed, but it can be clearly seen the
outdoor scenery changes in the indoor.

Fig. 2 United States of Iowa, Des Moines public library

Shaped glass. The most common form of glass is flat glass, and the glass processing is also
based on the flat glass, although we have obtained various forms of glass, such as stained glass,
half-transparent glass, glass with a pattern or text effects, ect.. But it has always been a
two-dimensional image in front of people; rarely three-dimensional image of the glass was shown.
Although it does have U-shaped glass, glass tiles and other glass styles, but they have always been
inherent in its form, with few changes.
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 204-208 3861

A good example is the Prada store Tokyo Omotesando (Fig.3) designed by Herzog & Demeuron.
There, architects processed the ordinary flat glass into uneven shape according to the principles of
glass heated produce deformation, which changed the monotonous appearance of the building and
obtain a wealth of light and shadow effects. Glass processing is under rigorous control: first, laying
aside the glass on the diamond glass frame and heat it up to produce the deformation. In order to
achieve maximum height of the curve of glass 30mm, rigorous control of the deformation process is
needed. It is necessary to carry on the careful approval to curved glass, after acceptance of the
curved glass before being sealed into a double layer of glass panels. The building uses 840 glass, of
which 205 are convex and 15 is concave, and the remaining is flat glass. Changes in refraction glass
bump changed the direction of light and reflected light that not only created a rich visual appearance
also caused the room light change.

Fig.3 Tokyo Roppongi Louis Vuitton store

Organization mode innovation. Iidabashi Tokyo subway station (Fig.4) completed in 2001 is
designed by Japanese architect Watanabe Cheng. In this project, a variety of ways were used to
reduce metro operation and maintenance costs. In the lighting system design, Watanabe Cheng
takes the spontaneous phosphorescent acrylic embedded in the inner surface of the glass,
maximizing the use of lighting through the use of acrylic phosphorescent effect. This mosaic acrylic
glass material was widely used in the walls of the channel and platform on the pillar.

Fig. 4 Iidabashi Tokyo subway station

Conclusions
Glass was originally intended to be a kind of construction materials needed for construction,
through clever design of the building environment and combination of various glass technologies, it
goes beyond the material aspects of meaning. It then becomes a unique cultural background of
aesthetic pursuit and has a spiritual meaning and aesthetic content. It is not only fully meets the
practical function, so that space can break through the conventional form limit, and the aesthetic
characteristics displayed by glass of the moment changes the space inside and outside the sensory
3862 Progress in Industrial and Civil Engineering

effects, Maximum highlights the building's personality charm, Improves the quality of buildings,
Expresses the artist individuality characteristic, Simultaneously also creates a diversity of urban
architecture.

Reference
[1] Juan-rong Ma. Architectural Glass. In Chinese. Chemical Industry Press of China. 2006.
[2] Guang-bi Zhang. Building Materials. In Chinese. Electric Power Press of China. 2006.
[3] Shu-yuan Wan. Contemporary Western Architectural Aesthetics. In Chinese. Southeast
University Press of China. 2001.
[4] Feng Fu. Preliminary Exploration of the Glass Building. In Chinese.Southeast University. 2005.
[5] Kang-jun Zhang. Brief Analysis of Modern Building Materia”Desigen”. In Chinese. Southeast
University. In Chinese. 2006.
Progress in Industrial and Civil Engineering
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New Applications of Glass Materials in Buildings

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