Wayback Machine 1958: The Future of Glass
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 01.23.08
Philip Johnson's Glass House
Here is an interesting prediction of the future from Smith Rairdon, director of marketing for Owens-Illinois Glass Company, about the future of glass, made in 1958:
"In the year 2008 a bride will be carried over the threshold of a glass house. Her kitchen may be glass-walled with a glass refrigerator, glass chairs, shelves and cabinets.
"She'll cook with throwaway glass containers which she plucks from the supermarket shelves, uses as cooking utensils in an electronic oven and then places on a dining table as serving dishes." ::Paleo-Future
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how wasteful that they would be throw-away dishes. . . glass can be washed.
um. . . my comment was supposed to be accompanied by a little ;) wink. . . sorry 'bout that.
The future is Glass .... South oriented with a lot of thermal mass behind.
It's interesting that materials science has carried us away from our tried and trusted glass. As much as I love the taste and smell of phthalates ... I'd love to see glass return as a major force.
In a way, we ARE living in a glass house.
It always seems to me that the problem with "glass houses" is that they always seem to be all made of glass. If they could only design them with the South-facing aspect only in glass, and the rest in a more insulating material, they would be more practical. But they must be hellishly expensive (in both money and emissions terms) to keep warm in Winter compared to a house constructed from better insulating materials.
Just like the trend to more open-plan houses - totally impractical if you want to keep them warm in Winter for a reasonable use of energy.
Unless, of course, you can find some totally renewable energy source like ground source, but again the area required for an installation that would cope with a poorly insulated property must be vast.
It looks nice, just remember if you live in that house you really shouldn't throw stones
Privacy?
my school just built a new office all out of glass, only because they ran out of money to put in actual walls. all the glass is single-pane. definitely not good insulation, easy to break, and no privacy. glass houses are SO not the future -__-