Welcome to the Glass Age

105 to monolithic towers, glass became a common shared experience of modern and contemporary lifestyle; but it also became part of a problem as much as a technical solution. As one of its advantages is transparency and heating through solar radiation, its widespread use disregarding local climate leads to an increasing consumption of electricity and resources through air-conditioning machines, and both transparency and reflexivity contributed to the formation of urban heat islands and overall increase of a city’s temperature. For that, the glass and glazing industry offers many technical solutions, and advances are now moving towards the construction of buildings that are energy neutral or even can contribute to the energy grid. So, if Walter Benjamin argues that in the first half of the 19 th century it was still known how to build with glass in the heights of the Industrial Revolution, today one could say that in the first half of the 21 th century we are undoubtedly expanding the knowledge on how to build an environment-aware glass in the age of climate changes. Glass architecture goes beyond the debate of ethics and aesthetics, it is the practical reality of cities and can be an integral part of an environmental solution to contemporary challenges. The International Year of Glass presents this unique opportunity to recapitulate the past two hundred years of glass architecture and think of a new future for the city of glass, to overcome its challenges and create new social perspectives. It allows architecture to go beyond the traditional constraints of the disciplinary field and be part of a coordinated debate Figure 6.9. Lina and the “glass easel”. MASP main exhibition hall under construction. Source: Lew Parrella/Instituto Bardi.