When designing, architects are responding to and creating a relationship between identity, culture and architectural style. This book discusses whether the extent of the use of glass facades has increased, or indeed enhanced, the creation of meaningful place-making, thereby creating a cultural identity of 'place'. Looking at the development of perceptions of glass facades in different cultures, it shows how modernist 'glass' buildings are perceived as an expression of technical achievement, as symbols of global economic success and as setting a neutral platform for multi-cultural societies - all of which are difficult for urban developers and policy makers to resist in our era of globalization. Drawing on a number of modern and heritage design projects from Europe, the USA, the Middle East and South East Asia, the book reviews efforts of some regional towns and local places to move up the economic ladder by adopting a more 'global' aesthetic.

When designing, architects are responding to and creating a relationship between identity, culture and architectural style. This book discusses whether the extent of the use of glass facades has increased, or indeed enhanced, the creation of meaningful place-making, thereby creating a cultural identity of 'place'. Looking at the development of perceptions of glass facades in different cultures, it shows how modernist 'glass' buildings are perceived as an expression of technical achievement, as symbols of global economic success and as setting a neutral platform for multi-cultural societies – all of which are difficult for urban developers and policy makers to resist in our era of globalization. Drawing on a number of modern and heritage design projects from Europe, the USA, the Middle East and South East Asia, the book reviews efforts of some regional towns and local places to move up the economic ladder by adopting a more 'global' aesthetic.

"Blurred Transparencies in Contemporary Glass Architecture brings to light complex readings of transparent glass through close observations of six pivotal works of architecture. Written from the perspectives of a practitioner, the six essays challenge assumptions about fragility and visual transparency of glass. A material imbued with idealism and utopic vision, glass has captured architects' imagination, and glass' fragility and difficulties in thermal control continue to present technical challenges. In recent decades, architecture has witnessed an emergence of technological advancements in chemical coating, structural engineering, and fabrication methods that resulted in new kinds of glass transparencies. Buildings examined in the book include a sanatorium with expansive windows delivering light and air to recovering tuberculosis patients, a pavilion with crystal clear glass plenum circulating air for heating and cooling, a glass monument symbolizing the screen of personal devices that shortened the distance between machines and humans, and a glass building symbolizing the the social and material intertwining in the glass ceiling metaphor. Connecting material glass to broader cultural and social contexts, Blurred Transparencies in Contemporary Glass Architecture enlightens students and practitioners of architecture as well as the general public with interest in design. The author demonstrates how glass is rarely crystal clear but is blurred both materially and metaphysically, revealing complex readings of ideas for which glass continues to stand"--

Glass has long transformed the architectural landscape. From the Crystal Palace through to the towering glass spires of today's cities, few architectural materials have held such immense symbolic resonance in the modern era. The Age of Glass explores the cultural and technological ascension of glass in modern and contemporary architecture. Showing how the use of glass is driven as much by changing cultural concerns as it is by developments in technology and style, it traces the richly interwoven material, symbolic, and ideological histories of glass to show how it has produced and dispersed meaning in architecture over the past two centuries. The book's chapters focus on key moments within the modern history of architecture, moments when glass came to the forefront of architectural thought, and which illustrate how glass has been used at different times to project different cultural ideas. A wide range of topics are explored – from the tension between expressionism and functionalism, to the persistent theme of glass and social class, to how glass has reflected political ideas from Nazism through to today's global consumer capitalism. The book also grapples with current arguments about sustainability, while, taking into account the advent of digital LED screens and 'smart glass', offering new cultural perspectives on the future and asking what glass architecture will signify in the digital age. Combining close readings of buildings with insights drawn from research, plus good storytelling and strong contemporary relevance, The Age of Glass offers a fascinating new perspective on modern architecture and culture.

When designing, architects are responding to and creating a relationship between identity, culture and architectural style. This book discusses whether the extent of the use of glass facades has increased, or indeed enhanced, the creation of meaningful place-making, thereby creating a cultural identity of 'place'. Looking at the development of perceptions of glass facades in different cultures, it shows how modernist 'glass' buildings are perceived as an expression of technical achievement, as symbols of global economic success and as setting a neutral platform for multi-cultural societies - all of which are difficult for urban developers and policy makers to resist in our era of globalization. Drawing on a number of modern and heritage design projects from Europe, the USA, the Middle East and South East Asia, the book reviews efforts of some regional towns and local places to move up the economic ladder by adopting a more 'global' aesthetic.

Introduction -- Resonance. Fiery action: toward an aesthetics of new heroism -- A culture of resonance: hypnotism, wireless cinema, and the invention of intermedial spectatorship -- Transparency. Dances of fire: mediating affective immediacy -- Transparent Shanghai: cinema, architecture, and a left-wing culture of glass -- Agitation. "A vibrating art in the air": the infinite cinema and the media ensemble of propaganda -- Baptism by fire: atmospheric war, agitation, and a tale of three cities.