Could the era of glass skyscrapers be over?

[mdiederi]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

stonework has thrived for at least 4 millennia. Not that this is timeless, but surely more so than a mere 80 years.

Most glass is over 70% silica, which is quartz stone. Kind of abstract to say a glass building is clad in stone, but it is about 70% stone.

[ThatOneGuy]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

^how do you arrive at that comparison?

They had mud/wattle. And thatch.

Holy shit dude.
They didn't use glass and steel until 80 years ago because they had none (only stone/mud/whatever), and even if they did, nobody thought of using it for building facades.

Steel and glass has been popular ever since it was used for building facades. The attempt to lessen these materials in the 80s and 90s failed.

[mdiederi]

Historically, the architectural use of glass siding can probably be said to have its start with the very large stained glass windows found in cathedrals (the tallest skyscrapers of the period) starting back in medieval times around 1000 AD, with the windows covering more and more of the wall area as the Renaissance progressed, climaxing in the Perpendicular Gothic style where on some of the tallest cathedral walls the glass covers the majority of the wall area.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpend...dicular_Gothic

Full glass cladding appears in the mid-19th century in the Crystal Palace type of buildings, usually at the Great Exhibitions staged in large cities.

Crystal Palace, London, built in 1851 of cast iron, wood, and glass in Hyde Park, it was moved in 1854 to Sydenham (photo). It was designed by Joseph Paxton, a gardener/architect who had built glass garden conservatories, and devised the glass curtain wall for the Chatsworth Lily House circa mid-1840s .

http://openbuildings.com/buildings/t...e-profile-6477

Palacio de Cristal, Madrid, 1888.

http://www.imagejuicy.com/images/fam...rid,-spain/65/


http://home.comcast.net/~hadleyives/...in_2008_3.html

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by ThatOneGuy

Holy shit dude.
They didn't use glass and steel until 80 years ago because they had none (only stone/mud/whatever), and even if they did, nobody thought of using it for building facades.

Steel and glass has been popular ever since it was used for building facades. The attempt to lessen these materials in the 80s and 90s failed.

I am talking about your slightly ridiculous analogy about computers.

[mdiederi]

Aesthetically, I'll take glass over EIFS any day, even though EIFS might be a better insulator. There's just something very artificial, fake, and cheap about EIFS, probably because they disguise it to look like stucco or fake stone or brick a lot of the time. Glass is real stuff, not trying to look like something else. Getting rarer and rarer now days to find a skyscraper developer using real stone.

[333609543]

I'd like to go back to designing skyscrapers and other buildings in the form of art deco architecture. And some other styles of the early 20th century. That is what I prefer.

[chris08876]

No, its only beginning. Glass is here to stay. While I love art-deco, its to expensive to build. We might get some form of it, but it will most likely be a bastardized version of it. The intricate detail of early 20th century projects would cost a fortune with todays construction costs, especially in many of the worlds global cities. I would like to see more, but unless a developer wants to spend a lot of money on it, it will remain a rarity.

[M II A II R II K]

3D Printing with no manual labour to build things in the future could make it a possibility again. Just buy the concrete, and pour it into some automated factory that prefabricates these parts of the building.

[KevinFromTexas]

Glass is low maintenance. It stands up to the elements better and is easier to clean and replace. Even stone faced buildings aren't weather proof, and it's harder to clean.

Besides, we can still have art-deco-esque with glass facades:
https://www.google.com/search?q=will...w=1920&bih=955