Architecture: Is Glass Really All That It's Cracked Up To Be?

From: The Independent (London, England) | Date: July 31, 1998 | Copyright information

GLASS IS one of the oldest building materials. And yet, as these projects by Britain's leading architects show, using glass adventurously to make light-filled public buildings on a huge scale can create problems that have nothing to do with privacy, glare, overheating, or condensation. The appearance of cracks and clouding in new glass buildings has shattered its reputation.

"Ninety nine times out of a hundred, toughened or laminated glass will not shatter or break," says Chris Wise, a director of Ove Arup. "And as the automobile industry illustrates, people trust laminated glass implicitly ...

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