CONSTRUCTION + MATERIALITY

By Lorraine Farrelly.

Materials creates an ambience and provide a texture or substance to architecture. According

to the author, to understand how to use materials effectively, a designer needs to have an
understanding of how materials have been used historically, their nature and their
possibilities and limitations. This helps to develop a range of design approaches. In this book
the author has introduced traditional, manufactured and more contemporary materials. Each
chapter describes a particular material in terms of its historical developments and nature.

Chapter 4: Glass and Steel.

In this chapter the author tells us that glass is a material of the future and provides both
practical and symbolic qualities of transparency, lightness ad openness. Glass and steel
represents a manufactured form of architecture. These materials are frequently used in
contemporary architecture to produce buildings that are both functional and practical. Yet the
aesthetic possibilities with glass and steel are impressive. The architecture that uses these
materials can become almost invisible, framing view of landscape or sky. Glass is no longer
limited to taking the form of a transparent surface that is held by a steel frame. It has the
potential to be structural, creating an almost invisible architecture in the process.

Spirituality and wealth:

The author tells us about the use of glass in places of worships. Numerous and large glass
windows allow a building’s interior to flood with light, which might suggest qualities of
heavenly and the divine. Medieval cathedrals are the perfect example.
One of the examples that the author talks about is the Charles Cathedrals (in Chartres,
France), which has magnificent glazing dating from 1150. The colours of the cathedrals
stained glass animate the interior and depicts narrative scenes from the old and the new
testaments of the Bible.

Protection and industry:

During the Victorian era glass was used experimentally in horticulture to provide protection
from harsh climates for plants, fruits and vegetables. This led to innovative designs for
greenhouses across the northern Europe.
Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace in London’s Hyde Park to house the Great Exhibition of 1851
and brought together innovation in materials, construction and manufacturing. It influenced
the designs of many more industrial buildings needed for large shelters, open spaces and
simultaneously allow lots of daylight to flood in. Cast iron columns and modular glazing
systems created a new, functionally driven architectural language.

Material association:
Glass offers the architect the potential to create building forms that can be immediately
associated with the properties of the material itself, producing structures that are transparent,
light, open and clear. The author explains this with the example of the Federal Parliament in
Bonn, Germany (designed by Behnisch and Partners and completed in 1991). This is one of
the first designs to use this powerful association in contemporary parliament building.

Structure and finishes:

Now glass can be used structurally. Reinforced glazed pieces can be used as floor panels or
stair treads and glazed structural columns can be used to support glass walls. Glass is also
frequently used as curtain walls. Glass can also be used as a finish, perhaps to create a
decorative panel inside a building or exterior cladding.
The author points out how the Apple store in New York, designed by Bohlin Cywinski
Jackson, uses glass walls and structural elements to create a completely transparent
architecture.

Surface treatments:
Architects are increasingly exploring the ambiguities that different glass surface treatments
can bring. Screen printing dots or patterns on to the surface can suggest reflections when
viewed from a distance and at close range allow shadows of the interior to be seen. Glass can
also be treated with chemicals so that it is self-cleaning and can be used in areas that may be
difficult to access for maintenance. There are also surface treatments available that prevents
the heat loss through glass in winter and controls solar gains in the summer.

Case Studies: The McLaren Technology Centre by Foster + Partners

The McLaren Technology Centre is the corporate and manufacturing headquarters for the
McLaren Group (producers of formula one cars) located in Surrey, England. Its design was
made so to reflect the company's design and engineering expertise. It needed to serve as
the ‘laboratory’ for McLarens’s innovation. McLaren’s preconception was what the
spirit of the building, its aspirations and the social generators should be.
The McLaren Technology Centre uses high-specification steel and glass to suggest a
‘future’ architecture in terms of material development and design. The centre’s semi-
circular plan is completed by a formal lake. The principal lakeside façade is a
continuous curved glass wall that looks out across the landscape and is shaded by a
cantilevered roof. The floor to ceiling glazed panels ensure a strong visual connection
between the interior of the building and the surrounding landscape and ecosystem.

Conclusion:
In the end the author tries to convey the fact that glass and steel are part of the
modernist aesthetic. The combination of both provides both strength and delicacy to
architecture.