One of the strongest materials in modern construction and architecture is glass, with walk-on glass being strong enough to form the main surface for suspension bridges used by thousands of people.
During an era in China where several gigantic glass bridges were being made, a large off-road vehicle drove along it to prove that it could take the weight of the thousands of people expected to cross it.
This worked because the concept of creating glass strong enough to walk on, drive across or support some of the weight of skyscrapers is not new. The first modern building made with structural glass is nearly a century old, started a revolution when it was completed and still turns heads today.
The House Of Glass
The Maison de Verre in Paris was an unusual building constructed during one of the most unusual and unsettled times in French history, constructed under somewhat strange circumstances.
It was commissioned by Dr Jean Dalsace and his family as a new type of house that would also provide space for the first family-planning clinic in Paris, as well as a building which emphasises openness, transparency and boundaries.
The result relied heavily on glass brick, an early form of structural glass that up to that point was primarily used for skylights in factories and industrial buildings. It had not been used as a structural material nor was it typically used vertically up until that point.
Beyond the literal transparency of the building, the building relied on a design philosophy where
form follows function. The steel, rubber, wood and glass which made up the majority of the structural and furniture elements of the house were not hidden, something that would become key to the modernist architectural style going forward.
The Construction Of Glass
The construction of the building was complicated and subject to several delays due to the location of the building. The Dalsace family bought an old townhouse in Paris to demolish it and create a new modernist villa on top.
However, whilst they bought most of the building, one elderly tenant remained and refused to sell their home at any cost.
This led to a rather unusual construction arrangement where the House of Glass was built around the existing top floor by Pierre Chareau, Bernard Bijvoet and Louis Dalbet, an interior designer, an architect and a metalworker respectively.
Improvisation was a key part of the building’s unusual design innovations, including the glass walls to improve natural light, the open plan nature of the floors, a retracting staircase and unusual rotating wardrobes and drawers.
The Culture Of Glass
Outside of remaining a Paris landmark, the use of glass would not only be an architectural revolution but also a cultural one.
In the 1930s, Dr Dalsace, a socialist, anti-fascist and member of the French Communist Party, would regularly host surrealist poets and artists, as well as philosophers and political writers such as Walter Benjamin.
Mr Benjamin, part of the prominent Frankfurt School, was inspired by the building and believed in a potential “culture of glass” that would “transform mankind” based on the form follows function principles that had led to the Maison de Verre.
In some respects, he would be proven right, as it would turn out to be just the first of countless houses of glass that would be built over the following century.