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Overview
For centuries, glass has provoked fascination with its properties as a versatile material that permits light to enter buildings in spectacular ways. Much of modern architecture has been conceived by using glass to create increasingly minimal structures, to promote the notion of lightweight construction solutions, and to allow maximum daylight into buildings. New Glass Architecture showcases the changing ways that aesthetics and methods for using glass have been developing since the 1990s.
The book begins with an introduction that traces the history of key moments in glass architecture—from the stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral to the Crystal Palace of 1851, and early constructions by John Soane, Bruno Taut, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe. Author Brent Richards explains the importance of glass artists in the second half of the 20th century and describes developments in glass technology over the last twenty years. Beautifully illustrated with newly commissioned photographs by Dennis Gilbert, the book features twenty-five case studies of recent glass constructions from around the world by such leading architects as Foster and Partners, Frank Gehry, Herzog & de Meuron, Steven Holl, Toyo Ito & Associates, Jean Nouvel, Raphael Viñoly, and Peter Zumthor. Each building is illustrated in full color and accompanied by detailed drawings.
New Glass Architecture features these buildings and more:
· Chapel of Ignatius, Seattle
· Condé Nast Café, New York
· DZ Bank,Berlin
· Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia
· Kunsthaus, Graz, Austria
· Laban Dance Centre, London
· Torre Agbar, Barcelona
Synopsis
For centuries, glass has provoked fascination with its properties as a versatile material that permits light to enter buildings in spectacular ways. Much of modern architecture has been conceived by using glass to create increasingly minimal structures, to promote the notion of lightweight construction solutions, and to allow maximum daylight into buildings. New Glass Architecture showcases the changing ways that aesthetics and methods for using glass have been developing since the 1990s.
The book begins with an introduction that traces the history of key moments in glass architecture—from the stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral to the Crystal Palace of 1851, and early constructions by John Soane, Bruno Taut, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe. Author Brent Richards explains the importance of glass artists in the second half of the 20th century and describes developments in glass technology over the last twenty years. Beautifully illustrated with newly commissioned photographs by Dennis Gilbert, the book features twenty-five case studies of recent glass constructions from around the world by such leading architects as Foster and Partners, Frank Gehry, Herzog & de Meuron, Steven Holl, Toyo Ito & Associates, Jean Nouvel, Raphael Viñoly, and Peter Zumthor. Each building is illustrated in full color and accompanied by detailed drawings.
New Glass Architecture features these buildings and more:
· Chapel of Ignatius, Seattle
· Condé Nast Café, New York
· DZ Bank,Berlin
· Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia
· Kunsthaus, Graz, Austria
· Laban Dance Centre, London
· Torre Agbar, Barcelona
Library Journal
Great strides have been made in glass technology in recent years, such that the visionary but unfeasible design concepts of earlier generations can now be realized and surpassed by today's architects. Richards (architect & director, Design Laboratory, Central St. Martins Coll. of Art & Design) presents 25 beautifully illustrated "case studies," all landmark buildings of the last decade, that exemplify advanced, imaginative, and often environmentally sustainable applications of glass. Concert halls, museums, office towers, private homes, and other structures constitute the judicious but largely Eurocentric selection; it would be quibbling to remark on omissions such as Norman Foster's astounding Reichstag dome (Berlin) or Werner Sobek's acclaimed House R128 (Stuttgart, Germany). Copious images by architectural photographer Gilbert, along with plans and a concise text, highlight the structural and aesthetic use of glass in each case study. With its smattering of postmodernist philosophy and sprinkling of technical jargon, this book lies somewhere between the professional/trade literature and popular coffee-table treatments like James Trulove's The New Glass House. Academic and architecture collections owning Michael Wigginton's Glass in Architecture should consider this as an update.-David Solt sz, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, OH Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.