Glass: Constantly Evolving, Enabling Superior Performance & Amazing New Applications

ARCHYI. Team decided to evolve our blog, creating a rubric dedicated to sharing noteworthy inspirations concerning architecture, interior design, arts and life in general with our readers. This is where you will find many interesting things we hope will inspire you.

Furthermore, it is an opportunity to stay up to date with the latest work from designers, architects, photographers, artists, discovering new and valuable ideas and good practices we find in the professional areas mentioned. Always exalting the best of our industry in this first article, we selected glass as the focus of our inspirations.

Why Glass? because nowadays advanced technologies in glass manufacture have been making amazing structural work with glass possible in some of the world’s most fascinating products, interior or architectural projects. We can say that in our time glass is one of the most effective building elements, inspiring more and more, not only architects but also interior and product designers, artists, etc. With the many benefits it brings to any project, the most evident being providing access to natural light with the ability to merge interiors with exteriors, this wonder super material can be used to transform a building, a space, a piece into a thing of unique, natural and elegant beauty. the fact that glass rhymes with class may not just be a happy coincidence.

Glass has evolved and is everywhere

Glass is not only a new trend or just a phase. History shows us that glass was constantly used in churches and masterpieces and its fundamental purpose has remained the same: allow natural light to enter and almost break the walls between the interior and the exterior.

Archaeologists have traced the origins of glass-making back to about 4000 BC; in those days it was found as glazing to coat stone beads, with the technology believed to have been developed by the ancient Egyptians.

It was only in the early part of the 17th century that glass became a common material of home interiors, in the form of windows; the rest as you know is all history. Today, there are unlimited applications of glass in interiors. Some of the common uses of glass include packaging (jars for food products, bottles for drinks and flacons for medicines and cosmetics), tableware (like cups, plates, bowls and drinking glasses) and home interiors including windows, insulation, facades, and conservatories.

Modern architecture has also evolved and glass has become more and more valued as a major construction material, rather than being viewed as mere practicality for windows and doors. It does much more than provide natural light into a room or an enclosure to an office building, it’s making a statement.

Glass is for sure one of the most significant architectural innovations of modern times. Many residential and office towers in major cities have now floor-to-ceiling window-clad facades, lobbies, and all glass interior partitions.  As new technologies revolutionise its manufacture, also new ways to use glass emerge in architecture and interior design. Applied indoors, glass in its different textures, colours, finishes and levels of transparency can allow the unobstructed view of certain products, hide more private areas without blocking the passage of light, and attract the attention of customers as focal points, among many other uses. Many of the industry’s leading architects and visionary designers have used glass in their iconic buildings, in ways that are both ingenious and astonishing in equal measure.

Now, structural glazing is a brilliant and cost-effective solution for contemporary glass design and is widely specified for use in sports, retail, hospitality, and public sector developments large and small. It is also becoming increasingly popular in protecting heritage sites, where its low-profile, high tech fittings allow it to serve a practical function as an ultra-clear veil for preservation without obscuring or obstructing historic architectural features.

The rapid development in glazing technology we have seen in recent years, and its incorporation into structural glazing systems resulted in big steps forward in terms of what can be achieved. It’s not just aesthetically that glass plays a relevant role. It’s also vital to a building’s energy performance and the comfort of occupants.

The more advanced structural glazing systems become, the less visible metal is used in the design, allowing other architectural features to be showcased. In most contemporary projects, this means designers can create striking, light-flooded spaces with an almost outdoor aesthetic, with the added benefits of excellent insulation and shielding out excessive heat and glare from the sun.

From architecture and interiors to highly superior writing surfaces

Thanks to the evolutions in glass manufacturing, architects are now able to specify a range of high-performance products into these point-supported systems that enhance the building envelope, that greatly improve energy-efficiency to interlayers that offer enhanced sound attenuation, structural integrity, and security properties.

Glass technology has advanced rapidly in recent years and did not stop to amaze all designers that decide to use this super material in their projects and products. Take ARCHYI Team designers and product developers for instances, we were so inspired by new types of superior quality, highly resistant and flexible glass that we decided to apply it in our CURVO Writing Solutions and instantly upgrade these products’ performance, aesthetics and durability.

This new superior quality glass proved to be the Finest Glass for a Superb Writing Experience and Bi-silque, ARCHYI.’s mother and manufacturing company settled to invest in a quest to improve the user experience of writing boards from all its brands. Bi-silque latest innovations have resulted in the development of a new writing board Panel, GLOWI glass surface is unique, with  no equal in the market, since it has the following outstanding features«

• Glowi can be produced with standard sizes and up to 2,4 m, but without the weight of the normal glass, making these boards easily transportable.
• Best in class writability and erasability resulting in cleaner and easy to clean surface.
• Whiter and clearer board surfaces, since the glass surface is extremely thin, resulting in no shadowing of the glass surface to the background, as per normal glass boards
• Usable with normal magnets for paper fixation. No need for high strength magnets as it happens with many other glass products in the market.
• Extremely flat surface and sturdy construction, yet amazingly light- weighted due to the panel core construction.
• Excellent for extensive use since it is highly resistant and durable
• Available for all different types of writing solutions, wall mount and mobile.

As you can see, the evolutions that this already super material had did not just help to improve architecture and buildings interiors as well as their envelopes. Glass revolution is also helping to revolutionise other industries, and the visual communication market is no exception.

New technologies are turning common raw materials into super innovative materials that elevate products’ performance, design and quality into a whole new level. We can guarantee you we are going to stay alert and focused in all the new features and applications that are becoming possible due to these constant innovations. Stay tuned!