Product development of Hybrid Glass Blocks: Rethinking shape, manufacturing process and assembly system

Glass has been widely used in the construction industry since the early nineteenth century. It was most commonly used in the form of a window, which is a flat glass panel. Glass has natural optical properties and is resistant to weather, making it ideal for use as a facade material. Glass’s novel applications in the built environment have led us...

Structural Dynamic Response of the Circular Arch Bridge

The Circular Arch Bridge is a pedestrian bridge consisting out of four different recycled materials: cast glass, ceramic, circument and geopolymer concrete. Due to an increasing amount of vibration problems in modern pedestrian bridges they should not only be designed for static loads, but dynamic loads have to be considered as well. There are...

In Between: An Interlayer Material Study for Interlocking Cast Glass Blocks

Interlocking cast glass assemblies are a promising solution for architectural cast-glass applications aiming for high transparency and a reversible structure that allows the reuse of the glass components (Oikonomopoulou et al.,2018; Oikonomopoulou,2019b). In such a system, an interlayer material between the glass elements is essential, to assist...

An Adjustable Mould for the Casting of Glass Voussoirs for the Construction of Fully Transparent Shell Structures

TCompared to flat sheets of float glass, cast glass components have a thicker geometry and thus a high buckling resistance. This buckling resistance in combination with the high compressive strength of glass make cast glass components suitable for the construction of fully transparent shell structures that are mainly subjected to compressive...

Glass Vaults: Introducing an adjustable mould for casting glass voussoirs for transparent shell structures

Glass is a material that has a high compressive strength and a low tensile strength. While being mostly produced as flat sheets of float glass, it can also be casted into components that have a thicker geometry and thus a higher buckling resistance. These properties make cast glass components suitable for the construction of shell structures...

Recycling borosilicate glass for a facade system assembled of dry-interlocking cast glass components implemented in Casa da Música

Currently, tons of high-quality borosilicate glass are discarded to landfills each year, taking up space on valuable land. Within the existing soda-lime glass recycling industry it is not possible to use recycled borosilicate glass due to its higher melting temperatures and a difference in chemical composition. In fact, borosilicate glass...

The cast glass travelling pavilion

Glass is a fascinating material with very interesting properties and high durability, while cast glass in particular has a lot of unmapped potential. It is also an environmentally friendly option that can be fully recycled or even better reused if not contaminated with other substances. The current thesis is exploring a dry-connection building...

The glass swing: a vector active structure made of glass struts and 3D-printed steel nodes

The majority of glass used in load-bearing structures is as planar elements. Some projects exist that use linear glass elements. This paper discusses in broad terms the design, engineering, and fabrication of a unique vector active glass structure consisting of glass bundles and partly printed steel connections. A structure was conceived that...

Interlocking cast glass components, Exploring a demountable dry-assembly structural glass system

This paper explores the potential of a novel, reversible all-glass system consisting of dryassembly, interlocking cast glass components. Owing to its interlocking geometry, the proposed system can attain the desired stiffness with the aid of minimal, if any, metal framing. The use of adhesives is circumvented in the system by employing a dry,...

The Glass Dome: Design technology for a dry assembled and cast glass dome

Glass is a versatile material applied in a large number of industries. It can for example be found in everyday household items, inside high tech machines or it can be used as part of mechanical structures in buildings. This research focuses on using structural cast glass components for a dome design forming a sustainable living habitat for Lori...

A Novel, Demountable Structural Glass System Out of Dry-Assembly, Interlocking Cast Glass Components

Cast glass components are a promising solution for engineering pure glass structures of high transparency and load-carrying capacity due to their large cross-sectional area and monolithic nature. Currently, the few realized structures employing cast glass components rely either on a steel substructure or on an adhesive of high bonding strength...