With the densification and ever-growing complexity of urban areas, the challenges in the field of architectural glass are more holistic than ever. The increasing awareness of our society’s footprint on the environment is becoming a top design consideration, impacting material sourcing, sustainability in its resilience and economical aspects, and the necessary reevaluation of responsible design philosophies, from inception through construction and maintenance to the potential dismantling of a façade. These constraints are striking stunning innovations in our field, where high-tech glazing products for high and responsible performance is the new norm. We are seeing significant development in structural glass with advances in design, glass composites curved glass, novel connection technologies, and advanced design philosophies for newly expanded scales, ranging from ultra-thin and flexible, to jumbo. In parallel, these systems necessarily combine with other dimensions of “adjacent spaces” innovation, for their inclusion in systems of high thermal performance, or photovoltaic capacity, or related glass processing, which hold their own structural and manufacturing challenges. Health and comfort, which are the original drivers for the use of glass, are finally quantifiable with the advancement of research and normalization in the fields of thermal and visual comfort, glare, acoustics, wellness, materials declaration, and substitutions.
This Special Collection aims at gathering high quality papers that address innovation of glass in architecture and offer notional perspective on its 360-degree impact on the built environment, such as the following nonexclusive topics as they relate to all types of architectural and structural glass, curtain walls and windows: Innovations in structural design of glazing systems and detailing philosophy; Composite glazing systems (e.g., glass-glass, glass-polycarbonate lamination) for gravity load bearing and lateral stability of facades; Long-term performance, durability, life-cycle assessment, environmental certifications; Design, fabrication, construction, and maintenance of modular and unitized systems; Developments in manufacturing and construction technologies (automation, data tracking, sustainable design, BIM, and digital fabrication); Economics and cost considerations, market barriers, commercialization of innovative/sustainable glazing systems, energy retrofit; High energy performance (IGUs, electrochromic glass, vacuum glazing, harvesting systems, zero energy design, photovoltaic integration double skin façade systems, and glazing for passive house design); Fire design and performance; Health and visual comfort, Intelligent sensing, control and user interaction; Acoustics performance (indoors/outdoors, flanking spaces, inter-story); Multi-objective optimization, complex geometry rationalization, automation, big data; Kinetic systems and flexible glass, cold/warm/hot bending technologies; Knowledge sharing, educational tools and opensource development; Smart glazing technologies, active façade, and intelligent envelope systems.