Glass as a innovative and green building material has transformed the building construction over a period of 2000 years.

1. GLASS
IN
BUILDINGS
AR. MUKUL SAINI , EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT
ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT, SJVN SHIMLA

2. Scope OF presentatioN
 Introduction
 Brief History
 Types of glasses
 Various Applications
in buildings
 Structural glass systems
 Glass for Green Buildings
 Latest research of interest
 Significance
 Conclusion

3. IntroductioN
Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline) solid which is
often transparent and has widespread practical, technological, and
decorative usage in things like window panes, tableware, and
optoelectronics.
The most familiar, and historically the oldest, types of glass
are based on the chemical compound silica (silicon dioxide), the
primary constituent of sand.

4. Brief historY
 Flat glass has been used as an enclosing element for approximately 2,000
years and is thus one of the oldest man–made building materials.
 Before industrialization, flat glass was produced, e.g., by means of manual
methods such as casting or cylinder technology.
 These were replaced by sheet glass and plate glass manufacturing
methods, which were used up until the 1960s. Machine methods had the
disadvantage of distortion and waviness.
 In the early 1950s, the English company Pilkington Brothers developed an
industrial solution for producing high quantities of large glass panes of a
consistent high quality and at a relatively moderate cost, which was an almost
entirely automated float glass manufacturing process.

5. Brief historY
 As a result of the oil crisis in the late 1970s, the glass architecture at that time
was subject to increasing criticism. Uncoated flat glass was considered a waste of
energy.
 Interpane was one of the first companies to successfully market neutral heat
protection coatings. One example is "iplus neutral" (since 1982): It is considered
to be the first color-neutral thermal insulating glass in glass history.
 The key to success was a special silver coating. This technology is now the
basis for the manufacturing of high-quality thermal insulating glass.

6. Main types of glasS
 Annealed glass
 Toughened glass
 Laminated glass
 Coated glass
 Mirrored glass
 Patterned glass

7. Annealed glasS
 Annealed glass is the basic flat glass product
that is the first result of the float process.
 It is common glass that tends to break into
large, jagged shards.
 It is used in some end products and often in
double-glazed windows.
 It is also the starting material used to produce
more advanced products through further
processing such as laminating, toughening,
coating, etc.

8. Toughened glasS
 Toughened glass is made from annealed glass treated with a thermal
tempering process.
(A sheet of annealed glass is heated to above its "annealing
point" of 600°C; its surfaces are then rapidly cooled while the inner
portion of the glass remains hotter. The different cooling rates
between the surface and the inside of the glass produces different
physical properties, resulting in compressive stresses in the surface
balanced by tensile stresses in the body of the glass.)

9. Toughened glasS
 Toughened glass is treated to be far more resistant
to breakage than simple annealed glass due to
counteracting stresses and to break in a more
predictable way when it does break, thus providing a
major safety advantage in almost all of its applications.
 Car windshields and windows, glass portions of
building facades, glass sliding doors and partitions in
houses and offices, glass furniture such as table tops,
and many other products typically use toughened glass.

10. Laminated glasS
 Laminated glass is made of two or
more layers of glass with one or more
"interlayers" of polymeric material
bonded between the glass layers.
 Rather than shattering on impact,
laminated glass is held together by the
interlayer giving more safety as well as, to
some degree, reducing the security risks
associated with easy penetration.

11. Laminated glasS
 The interlayer also provides a
way to apply several other
technologies and benefits, such as
colouring, sound dampening,
resistance to fire, ultraviolet
filtering and other technologies that
can be embedded in or with the
interlayer.

12. Coated glasS
 Surface coatings can be applied to glass
to modify its appearance and give it
many of the advanced characteristics and
functions available in today's flat glass
products, such as low maintenance, special
reflection/ transmission/ absorption
properties, scratch resistance, corrosion
resistance, etc.

13. Coated glasS
 Coatings are usually applied by controlled
exposure of the glass surface to vapours,
which bind to the glass forming a permanent
coating.
 The coating process can be applied while
the glass is still in the float line with the glass
still warm, producing what is known as
"hard-coated" glass.

14. Mirrored glasS
 To produce mirrored glass, a metal
coating is applied to one side of the
glass. The coating is generally made of
silver, aluminium, gold or chrome.
 For simple mirrored glass, a fully
reflective metal coating is applied and
then sealed with a protective layer.

15. Mirrored glasS
 To produce "one-way" mirrors, a
much thinner metal coating is used,
with no additional sealing or
otherwise opaque layer.
 Mirrored glass is gaining a more
prominent place in architecture, for
important functional reasons as well
as for the aesthetic effect.

16. Patterned glasS
 Patterned glass is flat glass whose surfaces display a regular pattern.
 The most common method for producing patterned glass is to pass heated
glass (usually just after it exits the furnace where it is made) between rollers
whose surfaces contain the negative relief of the desired pattern(s).
 Patterned glass is mostly used in internal decoration and internal architecture.

17. Different useS
 Supply of natural daylight
 Protection from rain, wind, and cold
 Transparency or translucency
 Means of communication
 Heat protection
 Sound protection
 Object and personal protection
 Fire protection
 Temporary heat and solar protection
 Use of solar energy
 Means of design
 Electromagnetic dampening.

18. Structural glass systemS
Structural glass facades are most easily categorized by the structure types that
support them.
 Strongback
 Truss Systems
 Cable Truss
 Grid shells
 Cable Net
 Glass Fins

19. Strongback systeM
 The structural systems are the simplest form
of structural support for a glass wall, but are only
useful in relatively short spans of two to six
meters usually.
 These systems can include both vertical and
horizontal structural components.
 Sometimes verticals are used with no
horizontals.
 They can be comprised of simple steel or
aluminum open or closed sections with
provisions for the attachment of the glazing
system usually of spider type.

20. Truss systeM
 Truss systems employ a planar
truss design, often in a hierarchical
system that may combine other
element types including tension
components.
 Truss designs vary widely, with an
emphasis on fine detailing and
craftsmanship.
 Rod or cable elements may be
incorporated into the truss design, and
lateral tensile systems are often
used to stabilize the facade
structure.

21. Cable trusS
 One type of truss system utilizes a
minimalist structural form called a cable
truss.
 The main spinal compression element is
removed, leaving the spreader struts as the
sole compression elements in this truss
type.
 As with cable nets, these systems rely on
the pre-tensioning of truss elements to
provide stability, and thus benefit
significantly from the early involvement of
the facade design/build team.

22. Grid shellS
 Grid shell structural systems are another
means to minimize the visual mass of structure.
 Configurations can be vaulted, domed and
double-curved.
 Systems can be welded, bolt-up, or some
combination of each.
 Grid shell structures with integrated cable
bracing can produce a highly efficient structure
with a refined aesthetic.
 Grid shells can be used in vertical and
overhead applications, as well as to form complete
building enclosures.

23. Cable neT
 If the spreaders were also to be removed
from Cable Truss System, a system known as
cable net is subsequently achieved.
 The glass is supported by a net geometry
of pre-tensioned cables.
 A clamping component locks the cables
together at their vertices and fixes the glass to
the net.

24. Glass finS
 This technology was popularized by
the Willis Faber & Dumas Building,
Ipswich, England circa 1972.
 In this glass plates are suspended and
laterally stiffened by the use of glass fins
set perpendicular to the plates at the
vertical joints between them.

25. Glass for green buildingS
 Reflective glasses come with reflective
coating that filters heat and let optimum light
into the building.
 Reduce the heat gain inside the building,
and thus reduces electricity and cooling costs
 Allow optimum light (natural daylighting)
inside the building, and thus reduces the cost
for artificial lighting

26. Latest research of interesT
 American company, New Energy
Technologies is developing electricity
generating transparent windows.
 The team developed a coating capable of
generating electricity on glass and flexible
plastics that is processed uniformly in different
color tints.
 These polymer organic photovoltaic arrays
are clear and only capture UV rays.

27. Latest research of interesT
 Unlike traditional building applied photovoltaic
systems, restricted to use in direct sunlight on very
limited skyscraper rooftop space, their ‘solarwindow’
is designed to operate in sunlight, shaded conditions
and artificial light on the many thousands of square
feet of glass surfaces common to today’s high rise
towers.
 The technology is the subject of forty two patent
filings, and researchers are on the track to advance the
project towards full scale production.

28. SignificancE
 Glass is the dominating material in modern day architecture which places optical
emphases and provides for numerous technical functions.
 The glass industry offers glazing with individual technical features that can be used
for heat, solar, or sound protection, as design components, safety glass, or as a
part of building design systems.
 Glass is no longer just a filler element, but is rather nowadays also used for
supporting or enveloping purposes.
 The main focus in building is usually on saving energy, especially in these challenging
times of increasing prices for energy and raw materials. Glass plays an important role in
it. Hence promoting the concept of Sustainability.

29. ConclusioN
Over a period of time, Glass has
acquired a special status as a significant
building material. Apart from being a
building material it is used in various forms also
in the building to enhance the overall quality
e.g. in furniture, electrical appliances and
decorative items. Various technological
innovations have made it a preferred choice for
architects and designers to promote
sustainability in built environment.
GLASS WALKWAY CHINA

30. THANK YOU