ARCHITECTURAL GLASS COMPONENTS FOR THE THIRD MILLENNIUM, GOING FROM THE AGE OF CONCRETE TO THE AGE OF GLASS

Mick Eekhout professor of Product development, Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture, PO Box 5043, 2600 GA Delft, the Netherlands.

ABSTRACT
Glass has been used in architecture for centuries as a transparent membrane between the interior and the exterior, protecting the interior from the weather while allowing daylight to penetrate the building and illuminate the interior. In the Gothic cathedrals and churches stone walls and large window openings filled with stained glass were integrated. In the last century the all-glass house was introduced as a new archetype of building, to enjoy the beauty of nature. Its commercial pendant was the glass covered shopping arcade, mainly in the last half of the 19th century. Although visionary architects like Mies van der Rohe proposed complete glass envelopes around high-rise office buildings in the early twenties, it took the Bauhaus period and the exile of its members in the USA to develop the all-glass facade office buildings which became a symbol of the 50s and 60s. The problem of excessive heat gain was resolved by using glass with a characteristic silver coating, making building facades more monolithic, almost metallic, rather than transparent. In Europe fossil energy saving double glazing was developed in the 70s. In the 80s architects turned back to transparent glass facades, challenging glass producers to combine transparency with low solar admittance. In a search for the extremes of expression, closed building components were developed in materials such as steel, aluminium, ceramic tiles and stone; these were combined with transparent facades and roof planes, in ultra transparent form and detailing. The developments for ultra-transparent glass facades are now leading towards systems for frameless glazing with many different subsystems, elements and components. After more than a decade of design, development, research and application, the field

of frameless glazing is regarded as fully grown and a respectable subject of design by architects. Producers no longer only offer their systems, but have to build systems designed by architects. The basic flaw of glass is its brittleness, the one characteristic that prevents glass from being a real engineering material:. To eliminate the problem of brittleness a research Master Plan called ZAPPI has been formulated at Delft University of Technology [1,2]. Based upon the principle that the use of transparency in architecture is limited by the inherent brittleness of glass, the search is continued to the limits of structural use of glass for applications in large scale facades and roofs in architecture.

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1. INTRODUCTION
In architecture glass panels have been used for centuries to form a transparent enclosure that allows daylight to penetrate into the interior of buildings. Undesirable climatic influences such as wind, rainwater and snow are excluded, while the interior spaces are lit through the glazed facade openings. It is also possible to look from the inside of the building outward and in many cases from the outside inward. Glass has been known for five millennia and has been used in many different forms and applications. It has proven to be a usable facade material in architecture, despite its shortcomings. Yet it is used because there is no better alternative. The more autonomously glass is used in constructions, the heavier the requirements that are posed with regard to certain characteristics. When glass is used in a more structural manner, the poorer characteristics such as brittleness and low practical tensile strength create design problems. This results in a material conflict. The glass panel fulfils an essential function for the habitation of
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interior spaces of buildings, yet structurally cannot increase its function beyond filling a hole in the wall. The glass panel is not able to carry loads other than its own dead-weight and local wind loading. The loading capacity, the ratio between dead-weight and external loading is modest compared to other engineering materials. This has formulated the critical design problem that non-transparent materials, capable of carrying loads, have to stabilise another, completely transparent material only because of the other materials ability to transmit daylight. A fully transparent solution does not seem possible in principle. In the high-days of Gothicism high church windows were made of many small glass panels, encased in lead and stabilised by bronze or wrought steel bars and slender stone pilasters. In the Gothic cathedrals the upper limits of the size of openings in stone walls and of the degree of transparency were reached. In Alkmaar (NL) the transept windows of the big Laurenschurch are 8 m wide and 24 m high, decreasing the masonry weight on the foundations and allowing optimal daylight into the interior even in dark winters. The current technology of glass production is the result of a long lasting development. The early production techniques up to the 18th century consisted of blowing glass bubbles and cylinders, cutting these open and flattening them. In the first phase of the industrial revolution the drawing of bigger glass panels from a glass bath was developed as a larger scale technique. In the last half century the current float glass ovens were introduced. The consistency in quality and the enlargement of sizes was a gradual development. From the old days the structurally bearing and encasing window profiles were made of timber or stone, in het 19th century wrought iron started to be used. One century ago steel profiles were introduced and in the last five decades aluminium has become the most popular material for the window frames of larger buildings. The transparent envelopes of the 19th century winter gardens and shopping arcades showed the world the innovative possibilities of the combination of glass and metal. The glass panels often were not thicker than 2 or 3 mm. However, the brittleness of glass, breaking sometimes through the flexibility of the steel structures, metal corrosion due to lack of maintenance and several big fires, most of these 19th century all-glass buildings disappeared so that by the end of the World War I the interest for glass roofs had ended. Also completely glazed buildings were out of favour. Since then large openings in outside walls in the new building material, reinforced concrete,

played an important role in the development of modern architecture. In the design phase fragile and glazed openings in walls were seen as favourite independent components of buildings. They were no longer regarded as just passive holes in the outside walls. The increased transparency of buildings was, by the excessive use of glass in facades, metaphorically seen as a symbol of the modern open society. Integrating transparency in buildings was put into effect rather literally. Glass panels offered due to its restricted dead-weight in relation to its stiffness a good means to realise dead-weight saving constructions for high-rise buildings with steel or concrete main structural frames. In architecture ever higher demands are posed to attain a more favourable energetic performance of the building and also of its glass panel components in facades since the first energy crisis of 1973. The intrinsic disadvantages of large glass surfaces due to the admittance of solar radiation in summer and heat loss and draft of cold air in winter were responded to after several years of development work by the introduction of prefabricated double glazed panels. Perfection in the composition and surface coating of glass by using energy reflective coatings can result in a project optimised answer concerning transmission of solar energy and daylight, reflectiveness and thermal insulation value.

2. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
In recent decennia a new phenomenon has arisen in architecture: large scale ultratransparent glass facades and roofs to contrast with closed building volumes. This applies specifically to larger buildings where the contrast is more striking. The big glass surfaces are designed to use the minimal amount of metal components to stabilise the glass planes. It resembles riding a bicycle without using the handlebars. Development and refinement of all-glass facades and roofs firstly concerns the chemical composition, like refined coatings on the glass body material. Secondly it concerns specifically the structural stabilisation schemes that minimise the visual mass. Thirdly it concerns the glass connectors between the glass panels and the structural stabilisers. Fourthly it concerns the composition of the glass planes with other building parts from materials with another character in the building, leading to a durable visual value as an architectural environment. Such macro-sized glass planes are composed of multiple prestressed glass panels, provided

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with bolt holes for metal glass connectors. The photographs of the authors projects are the result of collaborations with project architects all over the world. In the design processes similar technical restrictions were revealed provoking architects and challenging them not to sit and wait in the current state-of-the-art. The differences between the requirements and wishes of architects on the one hand and the current technical possibilities on the other hand are taken up as scientific challenges.

4. STRUCTURAL GLASS EXPERIMENTS AND PROTOTYPES

In the last decade the author had the privilege to be able to design, engineer, produce and realise a great number of glass structures in architecture which were innovative experiments in one or more of the following eight characteristic components: Glass Panels Watertight Sealing Outer Edges Glass Fixings Connectors Connection Bars Stabilising Structural Systems Anchoring.

3. TECHNICAL QUALITY OF GLASS AS THE CURRENT RESTRICTION

Despite the current large scale full-industrial production process of glass, the basis characteristics, brittleness and modest practical tensile strength, remain. Large spans can only be covered with the aid of other, non-transparent, materials. A great many designs and realisations of structural glass applications of the last two decades show that enterprising architects and engineers are extending the limits of the state-ofthe-art in using flat glass as a building material. The first design in this series were the conservatories of La Cite des Sciences et de lIndustrie in La Vilette, Paris from 1983 by architect Adrian Fainsilber and structural designers-engineers Peter Rice, Ian Ritchie and Martin Francis. In all current applications fully prestressed or heat-strengthened glass panels are used, able to take up higher stresses. But on overloading or local damage these glass panels break suddenly, without warning, and form a threat to the integrity of the entire glass structure. All designed solutions still lack resistance to sudden loadings like vandalism, seismic loading, explosions and phenomena like hurricanes and typhoons. Because fully tempered glass panels completely disintegrate into small fragments after rupture, the use of these single-walled monolithic glass panels in structural, building physical and maintenance respect as well as safe human use in buildings, is restricted. In the last decennium the outer limits of the application of prestressed frameless glass facades and roofs has been researched and described. Many architects are still are not satisfied with the current state-of-theart of flat glass technology and demand a more suitable and sophisticated answer to their demands and wishes. As consumers they challenge the glass and building industry to do further research and development. They are determined to do the design.

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At first single glass panels were made integral parts of the load bearing structure by loading them under tensile or compressive forces, later double glazing units were employed and respective fixation and connection details were developed: 1 The Glass Music Hall in the former Exchange of Berlage in Amsterdam (1990) with architect Pieter Zaanen, where the vertical glass panels were stressed under tension of the dead-weight of the lower panels and the glass curtain wall was stabilised by a passive tensile truss of steel rods.

The entrance canopy of the Philips Evoluon in Eindhoven NL (1992) with architect Gert Grosveld where a glass roof of 10 x 10 m with panels 2 x 2 m cantilevered from a central steel obelisk, whereby the outer glass panels are poststressed under compression by the tensile rod spokes on both sides to achieve an integral stabilisation system.

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Double glass frameless glazing facades with half-mechanical glass fixings: only through the inner pane, while the outside pane was siliconed by the internal spacer in the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam with architect Jo Coenen (1993). A suspended glass ceiling and undulating glass surfaces to form an acoustical envelope of 12 x 12 x 20 m inside the 17 th century New Church in the Hague NL with architect Cees Spanjers. The two gable surfaces are made hoistable by elevator apparatus to enjoy the full splendour of the old organ. The lobby facade of the OZ-building in Tel Aviv with architect Avrahim Yaski, with horizontal tensile trusses of prestressed rods and laminated single glass panels in a total size of 16 m wide and 52 m height (1994).

Repetitive underspanned horizontal glass roofs like the shopping centre Overvecht in Utrecht NL with architect ONB in the same stabilisation scheme (1995).

The first roof with frameless glazing insulated panels bonded with thermosetting glue to the stainless steel fixing without bolting one or both of the glass panes: Court of Justice in Maastricht NL with architect Gerard Passchier (1994).

Underspanned atrium roofs of max. 8 x 8 m for several smaller projects where poststressed rod underspannings stabilise the glass panel system in a filigree way.

The first vertical facade made with bonded fixings on an underspanned steel rod stabilisation and roof panels cantilevering on glued support fixings of the Prinsenhof Museum in Delft, architect Mick Eekhout (1996).

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The combination of hot rolled high quality sleek elliptical tubes to carry Quattro nodes directly as in the Chrysler building in Brussels with architect De Wachtelaer (1996)

6. FUTURE WORK
In the coming decade interesting developments are expected in the following aspects relating to structural glass in architecture: Systemisation of the technology gained from experiments for more universal applications; More complex geometries; More sophisticated structural stabilisations; Detailing of the metal components to act as the signature of the project architect; Visual refinement of all designed elements and components; Continued research into the structural use of glass components; Research into unbreakable glass-like material [1,2] Continued research into bonded fixings of glass panels.

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The development of 21/27 m long free spanning glass panel beams, whereby the dead-weight has to be carried by forces through the glass panels still is in the research and development phase with a half scale (13.5 m) prototype for loading testing for Zwitser leven Insurance Company head office in Amstelveen NL with architect Pi de Bruijn and ABT structural engineers (1997). Complex geometries in singe layered shelllike space frames like the atrium skylight for an office/conference/housing block Pariser Platz in Berlin with architect Frank Gehry in collaboration with Mero (1998).

REFERENCES 1 2 3 4 5 6 Mick Eekhout, Fred Veer ZAPPI, Research into Novel Possibilities for Transparency in Architectural Design, Glass Processing days 1997 F.A.Veer, M van Liebergen, S. de Vries Designing and engineering transparent building components with high residual strength Glass Processing days 1997 Eekhout, Mick, Architecture in Space Structures, 010 Publishers Rotterdam 1989 ISBN 90-6450-080-0 Eekhout, Mick, Product Development in Glass Structures, 010 Publishers Rotterdam 1990 ISBN 906450-111-4 Eekhout, Mick et al, The Glass Envelope TU Delft dept of Architecture Delft 1992 ISBN 90-74350-01-1 Eekhout, Mick, Architecture between Tradition and Technology or ZAPPI and the challenging Product Mystery, Publicatiebureau Bouwkunde TU Delft 1992, ISBN 90-5269-113-4 Eekhout, Mick, Stressed Glass, ZAPPI or product Development in the NAi. NAi Publishers Rotterdam 1996 ISBN 90-72469-78-x Eekhout, Mick, Tubular Structures in Architecture, Cidect Geneva/TU Delft 1996 ISBN 90-75095-26-0 Eekhout, Mick, Glass Structures In Architecture, 010 Publishers Rotterdam 1997

5. GENERAL RESULTS
Research and experiments have led to prototype applications in the glass fixing using half mechanical fixings and completely chemical (bonded) fixings. Structural stabilising systems were developed such as filigrain two-way underspanned rod trusses with passive posttensioning in truss alignment, in solitary diagonal bracing and in multiple diagonal bracings, like straight elliptical steel tubes with Quattro nodes or cantilevering brackets with Duo nodes. Structural use of glass panels by loading glass panels as an integral part of the stabilising structure under tension or compression.

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