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Why glass is the new go-to building material

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Why glass is the new go-to building material

Why glass is the new go-to building material

The market for flat glass has grown steadily, and is expected to hit nearly 85 million metric tons by 2020. Glass is widely used in a number of industries, including construction (for both residential and commercial buildings), new and replacement windows, the automotive industry, and more recently, alternative energy.

Glass goes from high gloss to high performance

While the number of buildings with glass exteriors has grown substantially since the 1970’s, glass is fast becoming the new rising star in both energy efficiency and alternative energy. Demands for low-emissivity glass, self-cleaning glass and smart glass have all increased substantially.

The ability to control the admission of UV- and infrared light plays an important role in improving the energy efficiency of interior spaces and entire buildings. The use of specially formulated architectural glass will only increase as the pressure to become more energy-efficient increases.

It’s also making waves in interior design because it transmits natural light so well, offers a premium decorating surface and is environmentally friendly. Specialized coatings can also increase the energy-efficiency and performance of ordinary glass. For example, Glassprimer™ glass paint offers superior UV-resistance and can be matched to virtually any color in any major paint manufacturer’s palette.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is specially formulated to create a permanent bond with the glass surface. Once cured, it will not delaminate, peel, crack or fade, even under harsh conditions. Glassprimer™ glass paint can be used to create special frosted effects on glass. True frosted glass is created by etching or sandblasting, which microscopically damages the surface of the glass. Glassprimer™ glass paint can create a frosted effect without damaging the glass. In addition, any color can be used to create “frosted” glass. True frosted glass isn’t colored, unless the glass itself is also colored.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is ideal for creating backpainted surfaces, and it’s more economical per square foot than colored or frosted glass. If you’d like more information about decorating with Glassprimer™ glass paint, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Maja Fabczak, via FreeImages.com

Iconic Glass Structures – KAIT Workshop

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Iconic Glass Structures – KIT Workshop

Iconic Glass Structures – KIT Workshop

When Japanese architect Junya Ishigami set out to design a news space at the Kanagawa Institute of Technology, he wanted a design that was inspired by nature. What he came up with is an open plan building that’s about 2,000 square meters in area. The glass and steel KAIT Workshop contains no interior walls, and the roof is supported quite literally by a forest of supports.

Glass blurs the boundaries of the space

The 305 supports, which are all unique in size and angle, evoke a forest, which is exactly what Ishigami was going for. The school wanted to build a space that students and the public could use to work on individual projects. Because the space was not intended for any specific purpose, its interior needed to be highly flexible, and able to be transformed rapidly, based on the users’ immediate needs.

The final design of the building was inspired by the ambiguity found in natural forests. Upon close inspection, forests are not uniform arrangements of trees, but instead feature random, self-initiated placements of trees of all sizes and shapes. Open spaces combine with tightly clustered growth to form what appears to be a single, definable unit. The borders between open and closed spaces in the forest is ambiguous, at best. This is what Ishigami was aiming for in the building’s design.

The structure of the building is steel, and the outside walls are made of glass. The building was not designed with earthquake resistance in mind. The building is built on a concrete-and-bituminous foundation. The glass walls use the visually striking foundation to blur the distinction between interior and exterior space. The roof combines steel and glass to admit as much natural light as possible.

The interior of the building is stocked with chairs, tables and workspaces, which students can use and reconfigure as needed. The interior design of the building is meant to challenge the distinction between the building’s “local” spaces and its universal space.

If you’re looking for inspiration for a glass decorating project, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Maurizio Muccicola, via Flickr.com

Falling glass incidents dot the news

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Falling glass incidents dot the news

The Marion Building (middle) recently lost one of its windows.

The month of May was unkind to glass windows in at least four different buildings. Reports of falling glass came in from Augusta, South Bend, London and Chennai. The four separate incidents were all ruled accidents. With the exception of the incident in Chennai, the buildings were vacant or under construction at the time of the accidents.

Falling glass is an anomaly

Let’s take a look at what happened.
Augusta, GA. Glass from the Marion Building, one of the oldest buildings in downtown Augusta, came crashing down on a parked car, and on the sidewalk below the building. Falling glass damaged a parked car, and narrowly missed pedestrians on the street. According to witnesses, a glass window was blown from the building on an exceptionally windy day. The building is currently vacant, and according to the owner, he is in the process of selling the building. Officials from the city’s building department said that they would inspect the rest of the windows in the building for loose window glass. No one was injured in the accident.

South Bend. Glass panels being removed by a contractor fell from the 25th floor of the former Chase Tower in South Bend, IN. The falling panels struck the adjacent Tower Building, breaking at least three windows in that building. According to the contractor and witness reports, a gust of wind lifted the loose panels and sent them tumbling. Two downtown South Bend streets were closed while the remainder of the work was completed.

London. A pedestrian was injured by a falling 4-ft glass panel in London. The glass fell from a structure that was being renovated at the time of the accident. The pedestrian, who required a blood transfusion as the result of the accident, suffered a head injury and was hospitalized overnight for observation. She is expected to make a full recovery.

Chennai. Glass ceiling panels fell from the Chennai Airport in Chennai, India. The airport, which opened three years ago, has been plagued by a series of incidents involving falling glass, granite and other building materials. Chennai Airport is the third-busiest airport in India. According to authorities, a thorough inspection of the building was completed and changes in building maintenance routines were suggested to avoid future accidents. No one was injured in the most recent incident.

In most applications, glass is perfectly safe! Glass used as a decorating or architectural surface in the home can be mounted easily, safely and securely using silicone adhesives or mirror mastic. Glass coatings like Glassprimer™ glass paint will hide adhesives applied to the back of the glass and will not react with the adhesives over time. That means your backpainted glass installation will look great for years.

If you’d like more information about decorating with glass, or proper adhesive advice, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Boston Public Library , via Flickr.com

Glass Cable Car Could Headine Chicago Skyline

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Glass Cable Car Could Highlight Chicago Skyline

Glass Cable Car Could Highlight Chicago Skyline

If two forward-thinking businessmen have their way, a new and unique feature could one day make its mark on the Chicago skyline – a glass cable car known as The Chicago SkyLine. The attraction, which has yet to be approved, is a glass gondola that would take visitors on a sky tour of the downtown Chicago area. The proposed route would following the Chicago River and transport riders from Millennium Park or Navy Pier to Michigan Avenue.

Glass cable car system could be built

The glass cable car is the brainchild of Laurence Geller and Lou Raizin. The pair has been working out the details on their plan for a couple of years, but debuted its current version publicly at the City Club of Chicago for the first time last month. The men are well versed in the promotion of the City of Chicago. They’re both board members of Choose Chicago, the city’s non-profit Convention and Visitors’ Bureau.

They’ve actually conducted feasibility studies, which show The SkyLine’s glass cable cars could attract nearly 1.5 million visitors per year. Their research also shows that the project would cost about $250 million to build, but they say they believe they could finance the project privately, so no taxpayer dollars would be used to make the project happen.

That doesn’t leave the City of Chicago completely out of the loop, though. Since the project would occupy city-owned property, the project would be classified as a public-private partnership, and the City of Chicago would share in the revenue.

According to the current plan, a series of individually controlled gondolas would be able to accommodate about 3,000 people per hour. Each ride would follow a pre-programmed loop around the downtown area, and would feature a few stops along the way. The cost of a ride would be about $20, which is comparable to other sightseeing attractions in Chicago, including the observation platforms at the John Hancock Center and the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower). The attraction would operate year round.

Architectural planning firm Davis Brody Bond has created preliminary drawings of the system. The men also hired consultants from Marks Barsfield, the London architectural firm that designed the London Eye, as well as a host of other metropolitan construction consultants, who all generally agreed that the attraction could be built.

To see additional conceptual images of the SkyLine, please visit Davis Brody Bond.
For glass decorating ideas, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Davis Brody Bond.

Vibrant Gorilla Glass has arrived

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Vibrant Gorilla Glass has arrived

Vibrant Gorilla Glass has arrived

In April, Corning announced that it had developed a new product, which it calls Vibrant Gorilla Glass, for use in mobile devices. If you’re familiar with Gorilla Glass, you know that it’s widely used in the mobile device industry – there are (literally) about 4 billion mobile devices that use Gorilla Glass today. Gorilla Glass is a specially formulated glass that is exceptionally good at resisting breakage, which is why it’s so heavily used in mobile devices.

Gorilla Glass claims more mobile real estate

Vibrant Gorilla Glass is a bit of a departure from Gorilla Glass. First, it’s not a new and/or improved version of Gorilla Glass. It uses the current version of the product. Second, it’s not meant for the front of a mobile device, where the other 4 billion pieces of Gorilla Glass have gone. Vibrant Gorilla Glass is meant for the cases, covers and backsides of mobile devices.

The company is betting that the value of putting Gorilla Glass on the backside of a device is that it will allow manufacturers to customize their cases and covers in a way that wasn’t possible before. In short, Corning is bringing back painting to mobile device cases. Using specially designed ink that bonds to glass, manufacturers can incorporate low-glare, photorealistic images into their mobile device cases and covers. Because the image is applied to the backside of the glass, the customized images and branding designs won’t chip, wear or fade.

Acer has already announced that it intends to offer Vibrant Gorilla Glass as an option on its new Chromebook 14 for Work, but also says that a minimum order of 1,000 units is required for customized orders. Ultimately, that means that highly customized images won’t be filtering down to the individual level anytime soon, but Acer may still offer a range of cover options for individuals that include the Vibrant Gorilla Glass product.

Corning also says that it is in talks with a number of other manufacturers who are interested in offering a Vibrant Gorilla Glass cover or case. The company is also considering extending the technology to after-market cases that are designed to slip over ordinary device covers.

Backpainting is nothing new, but it does point to a rise in interest in backpainted displays. You can make your own backpainted designs, using Glassprimer™ glass paint on glass surfaces around your home. You can also use Glassprimer™ glass surface molecular activator to improve the results of digital printing on glass surfaces.

For more information about our glass surface coatings, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: , via FreeImages.com

Recycling glass is good for the environment

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Recycling glass is good for the environment

Recycling glass is good for the environment

Recently, we discussed the trend in some major cities to eliminate glass from their curbside recycling programs. The rationale for eliminating glass was primarily economic: glass takes up a lot of space in recycling storage facilities that could be used to house other materials. Glass is heavy, and difficult to transport. Glass is dangerous, because workers can get cut on broken glass. In addition, container glass needs to be sorted by color prior to recycling. Finally, when it comes down to it, glass is inert, and can sit in a landfill indefinitely without harming the environment. It’s a higher priority to keep other, more dangerous items out of the landfill, and if the warehouse space can be used for these other, more dangerous materials, then it’s a fair tradeoff.

Recycling glass takes less energy

You can probably come up with even more reasons NOT to recycle glass, but nothing changes the fact that glass is perfectly recyclable. A finite amount of glass could be produced, melted down and reproduced in a continuous cycle, with no loss in the quality of the end product. Recycled glass takes less energy to melt down and recreate than it takes to produce virgin glass entering the product stream from raw materials.

Glass is superior to plastic or other disposable packaging materials (or building materials, for that matter) because it bears the designation “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS). What you put into a glass container will not change the container, and the container will not change the substance inside of it. The same can’t be said for plastic packaging, which has been demonstrated as a source of contamination. This is especially important for food packaging, and products that are meant to come into contact with food, like cups, plates and utensils.

It takes a lot of energy to create glass from scratch. Furnaces, which run on gas or electricity, need to consume a lot of energy to create the temperatures needed to turn raw materials into their molten state. It takes about one-third less energy to recycle one ton of glass than it does to convert raw materials into one ton of virgin glass.

In glass recycling, it’s typical to mix used glass with new glass to create a hybrid product. From a product quality perspective, there’s no reason “old” glass couldn’t be used entirely to make new containers, and the Glass Packaging Institute (GPI) set a goal for its members to use at least 50% recycled glass in their production processes by 2013. Practically, it’s possible to make new glass using 95% reclaimed glass and 5% new raw materials. The 5% drop is accounted for by contamination and other factors. Scrap glass, called cullet, is typically broken into pieces, but some pieces end up being too small (even dust-like) to be recycled.

A city’s decision to collect or not collect container glass is based on the economics of transporting, sorting and storing glass. Taken over the lifecycle of the glass, even with increased storage, sorting and transportation costs, recycled glass still makes both economic and environmental sense.

If you’d like more information about decorating with environmentally friendly glass, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Eric Bartholomew, via Flickr.com

Transparent wood acts like glass

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Transparent wood acts like glass

Transparent wood acts like glass

Researchers at the University of Maryland have found a way to make wood transparent. To remove the wood’s natural coloration, they chemically treated it to break down a compound called lignin, which gives the wood its tan-brown color. After removing the natural color, they hardened the remaining structure with a transparent epoxy.

Material insulates better than glass

The epoxy leaves the wood 4-6 times stronger than it would be naturally. As an added benefit, the wood is a better insulator than traditional plate glass. So far, the research team has only worked with small blocks of wood, but from a materials perspective, the results are promising.

Removing the lignin does not remove the wood’s natural ringed structure. That’s actually good from a materials perspective because it affects the way light is transmitted through the wood. The natural “channels” in the structure of the wood mean that light enters the channels and scatters differently than it would through ordinary plate glass.

Because the light is guided by the wood’s natural internal structures, it could be used in place of glass on a device like a computer monitor to reduce glare. The scientists also believe it could be adapted for use in automobiles, and could improve the ability of solar cells to trap light.

In their experiments, researchers used linden wood, and compared how the material performed when sliced both against and with the natural wood grain. Slicing the material with the grain allowed researchers to transmit light through the longer dimension of the block. The light penetrated the long channels of the natural wood structure and provided a relatively focused light transmission. Slicing the wood against the grain and transmitting light through the shorter dimension of the block diffused the light, but did not significantly impact the amount of light transmitted.

The research is far from complete, and wood may or may not ever serve as a replacement for glass, but the insulative properties of wood could make this an interesting materials choice for buildings and a lower-cost alternative for some mobile devices.

If you’d like more information about decorating with glass, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Niels Rameckers, via FreeImages.com

Spontaneous glass breakage in tempered glass

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Spontaneous glass breakage in tempered glass

Spontaneous glass breakage in tempered glass

The reports sound scary: “It just exploded!” “It sounded like a gun going off!” People report a small number of cases each year of tempered glass breaking in their homes. Tempered glass can be found in a number of places. Most commonly, it’s found in oven doors, shower doors and glass tabletops. What cases spontaneous glass breakage in tempered glass and what can you do about it?

Spontaneous glass breakage is uncommon

Spontaneous glass breakage is an uncommon phenomenon, but it does happen. When ordinary glass breaks, it reduces into random shards. These shards are for the most part jagged and sharp. Because the potential for injury is very high, tempered glass is used in certain applications to reduce the risk of injury. Tempered glass is a safety glass. When it breaks, it reduces into tiny cubed pieces, and often stays in one piece or several large broken pieces.

But what causes tempered glass to break spontaneously? The seeds of spontaneous destruction of a sheet of tempered glass are actually sown when the glass is manufactured – even before it has cooled. The tempering process heats glass up to a temperature of about 1,200 degrees, then cools the glass quickly. (Ordinary glass is cooled gradually.) The quick cooling changes the surface tension of the inner and outer surfaces of the glass, and strengthens it. Tempered glass can resist impacts and other insults that would cause ordinary glass to break.

When the glass is heated to its liquid or near-liquid state, nickel alloys in the glass are able to move more freely inside the glass. If they pool together (particularly toward the center) the tempered glass becomes vulnerable to spontaneous glass breakage.

Breakage can occur at any time – or not at all. The glass can break as the result of a fairly innocuous impact or other environmental factor, or it can occur for no apparent reason. Spontaneous glass breakage in tempered glass can be “explosive.” That is, it can create a tremendous, loud noise as it shatters. It can also happen very quietly.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission receives about 100 reports annually regarding spontaneous glass breakage in tempered glass. Most reports involve tempered glass shower doors, but a few involve other products like tabletops, oven glass and automotive side and rear window glass. (Windshields are made from laminated glass – a different kind of safety glass that also resists splintering when broken.)

There is currently no way to identify tempered glass that is vulnerable to spontaneous glass breakage. The good news is that when tempered glass breaks – though it may be scary – it does what it’s supposed to do: prevent injuries. Spontaneous glass breakage may be covered by manufacturers’ warranties or by homeowners insurance policies, and the number of reports of breakage is small compared to the amount of tempered glass that is used in homes around the country.

If you would like more information about decorating with glass, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Evelyn Köster, via FreeImages.com

Iconic Glass Structures: The Botanical Garden of Curitiba

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Iconic Glass Structures: The Botanical Garden of Curitiba

Iconic Glass Structures: The Botanical Garden of Curitiba

Periodically, we look at iconic glass structures. Today, we’ll take a look at The Botanical Garden of Curitiba in Curitiba in the Brazilian state of Parana. The Botanical Garden of Curitiba is relatively new. It opened its doors in 1991. The Botanical Garden, also known as Jardim Botânico Fanchette Rischbiete, is designed to resemble a French royal garden, such as the one at Versailles, and features waterfalls and fountains, nestled among neatly manicured hedges and angular stone walking paths.

Glass greenhouse modeled after Crystal Palace in London

The greenhouse was designed by architect Abraão Assad, who was inspired by the Crystal Palace in London. The soaring glass structure is visible from the main entrance, and is situated to catch the rising and setting Sun. Even though it is not nearly as large as the Crystal Palace, the greenhouse is impossible to miss! The building consists of a metal and glass structure, with three separate silos. The white metalwork serves as a decorative frame for the glass in the greenhouse, creating vibrant geometric patterns. The Gardens is on a significant plot of land, and contains a manmade forest dedicated to the region’s native plants.

The Garden is also the site of the Museum of Franz Krajcberg. Franz Krajcberg was an environmentalist who was passionate about conservation. The Museum is dedicated to conservation education, and features classrooms, exhibit spaces and materials to inform visitors about the importance of conservation and the role of the Garden in that mission. The Museum is also a research facility. It holds a reference collection of native Brazilian flora, including samples from Brazil’s endangered rain forests, and botanists from around the world come to the Museum to study rain forest flora.

Iconic glass structures - the Palm House, Gothenburg Sweden

The Palm House, Gothenburg, Sweden

The Botanical Garden of Curitiba isn’t the only garden inspired by the Crystal Palace. The Palm House in Sweden, which opened in 1878, is also modeled after the Crystal Palace. The first Crystal Palace was built in Hyde Park as a temporary structure to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. It proved to be such a popular attraction that the original building was torn down and rebuilt as a permanent structure on what is now called Crystal Palace Park. The recreated building re-opened in 1854 at the intersection of four boroughs in London, and stood until 1936, when it was destroyed by a fire. It was razed and was not rebuilt. In 2014, a Chinese developer announced ambitious plans to rebuild Crystal Palace on its former site, but the Bromley council, which owns the land, could not come to terms with the developer on crucial issues related to the building, and the plan was scrapped.

If you’re looking for inspiration for a glass decorating project, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit, The Botanical Garden at Curitiba, Curitiba, Parana Brazil: Marcio Cabral de Moura , via Flickr.com
Photo Credit, Palm House, Gothenburg, Sweden: David Jones, via Flickr.com

Decorating with glass: mosaics

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Decorating with glass: mosaics

Decorating with glass: mosaics

If you’re interested in decorating with glass, and are looking for a project that can stand the test of time, consider a mosaic. The mosaic is an art form that can be traced back to at least the 3rd millennium BC, and initially, was commonly created using pebbles. Other materials, including glass, shells, beads and ceramics, were also incorporated into mosaics.

Mosaics were first examples of decorating with glass

Mosaics are tough enough to serve as floor surfaces, but are also found liberally on walls and ceilings throughout the world. Mosaics have evolved over time, and, although they can be used to decorate exterior spaces, they’re usually found indoors. Decorating with glass via the mosaic was common in both ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Many early Christian and Islamic sites also featured mosaics prominently.

For hundreds of years (including today) mosaics have featured very small, generally square pieces of stone, tile or glass known as tesserae, but when decorating with glass, artisans can incorporate glass pieces of any shape. The earliest mosaics used naturally colored stones, but by about 1,500 BC, artisans began to incorporate glazed tiles in their mosaics. The earliest mosaics did not initially employ patterns, but they did strive to create imagery. Pattered mosaics became popular in the latter half of the Roman Empire.

Decorating with glass was common in early Christian sites, and many surviving sites feature richly colored images on walls and ceilings. Mosaics were not reserved for religious worship. They were also commonly found in private, upper class homes. Over time, mosaics became rather elaborate, and incorporated gold leaf, a broad range of colors and other adornments that gave them a distinctive appearance. Although mosaics can survive indefinitely, many mosaics from certain periods in history were destroyed, more for political and religious reasons, rather than wear.

Today, mosaics are enjoying a comeback in homes around Europe and North America. Decorating with glass is comparatively easy, and the resulting product (often backsplashes in kitchens and bathrooms) definitely stands up well to everyday use and cleaning. Colored glass (or transparent glass that is colored with glass paint) is often incorporated into modern mosaics.

If you’d like more information about decorating with glass, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Tim Green , via Flickr