Welcome to the Glass Age

101 however the same could be applied in a private dimension to Neutra’s Lovell House and Mies van der Rohe’s Tugendhat Villa (Figure 6.6). What becomes clear from the 20 th century debate is that there isn’t a single common root or a primordial form of glass architecture. Even Paxton’s Crystal Palace, being the most prominent candidate to the position, is a parallel event to the arcades of Paris, which cannot be considered as isolated from the city. However, it is possible to search for traces and correlations between different works in their historical context. As such, the Crystal Palace was a development of the techniques applied on the construction of English greenhouses, and the arcade of Paris were consequential to the urbanization of Paris from the late 18 th century. While technology can partially explain the development of glass, it lacks means to explain the social reality behind glass architecture. Therefore, a typological study opens the possibility to create a non-exclusionary presentation of glass architecture, one that is capable of a critical reading of most works along a chronological distribution. Figure 6.6. Mies van der Rohe’s Tugendhat Villa. Source: Wikimedia Commons.