Illuminating marble
Transforming Glass Waste into Resilient, High-Performance and Circular translucent composite facade panels
E. Myrtaki (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
F. Oikonomopoulou – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
M. Bilow – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
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Abstract
The transition towards circular façade systems requires material solutions that integrate waste upcycling, architectural quality, thermal moderation, and structural safety without relying on irreversible multi-material assemblies. This research investigates the transformation of glass waste into resilient, high-performance, and circular translucent façade panels. The proposed system is conceived as an all-glass panel, entirely made of glass waste, comprising dense marble-like glass skins for visual and surface performance, a porous foamed-glass core for thermal insulation and weight reduction, and engineered interfaces for post-fracture redundancy. Its primary contribution is the first experimental integration of safety-by-design and safety-by-material engineering strategies within the engineered, all-glass panels.
Through iterative kiln-based prototyping and material characterisation, the study demonstrates that underutilised glass waste streams can be processed into differentiated functional layers. For the foam core, sugar beet factory lime (SBFL) proved to be the most effective waste-derived foaming agent, with an optimum addition of 2.5 wt%. Fluorescent-lamp and PV-glass foams achieved low thermal conductivities of 0.070–0.074 W/mK, indicating that strict glass purity is not essential for thermal-core production. Dense skins were developed as protective and illuminating marble-like layers. Shard-based compositions produced the strongest marble-like appearance and the highest visible-light transmittance, reaching 33.60%. Vertical casting enhanced gravity-driven veining and surface quality, while PV-glass colour variations demonstrated that residual contamination could become an aesthetic design parameter rather than a defect. A user perception study (n = 31) further confirmed the architectural potential of this approach. Although impact testing did not yet validate a façade-ready safety system, it identified promising directions for post-fracture control. Product-scale evaluation showed that the panel can be tuned for different combinations of thermal performance, translucency, weight reduction, and architectural expression.
Overall, this research establishes an initial experimental framework for multi-performance and circular all-glass façade panels. Full-scale safety validation, fabrication reproducibility, and façade integration remain essential future research directions.