The power of crystal and glass in architecture
Surprising is one of the charms of the architecture and more, if we stumble upon a building whose facade is made ofcrystal and glass.
Not as a typical cladding for those facades that offer almost impossible cleaning, we mean to use literally "Glass bricks", that form the foundation and structure of the building's facade, including, of course,windows and framescrystal.
From one of the most luxurious neighborhoods in Amsterdam. The Mvrdv study once again breaks the rules of materials with the architecture projectGlass houses (Crystal Houses).
A new construction building that will represent the emblem of a well-known luxury brand in one of the most touristic cities in Europe, where new architectural projects are mixed between the traditional and the modern.
According to the legislation and regulations that affected said street, the facade aesthetics had to maintain the original and traditional forms of the neighborhood, a solution, if the configuration of the envelope could not be changed, it could only be possible to surprise the visitor with a radical change of materials .
So, the architecture studio immersed itself in a materials store until it found the idea… «The glass brick» (See also the article new 3D wall cladding). In the following video we can see the construction process, both of the building and of the new bricks.
The design of the glass facade Y glass it sinuously dissolves with the terracotta brick at its top where a residential apartment is situated.
Despite the delicate appearance, resistance tests by the team from Delft University of Technology showed that the glass used in the construction was in many ways stronger than concrete.
The development of new methods of construction and materials makes it possible to improve the future of construction, such as minimizing waste (See also innovative materials for design and architecture). In essence, all glass components are completely recyclable (More info here about glass or here about crystal characteristics).
Waste material from the project, such as imperfect bricks, was simply remelted to make other products or works. Remembering that as an example, once the end of the useful life of the building is reached, the facade can be melted again, giving it a new life.
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