The start of glass used in architecture is for decorative purposes
on the walls and ceilings, then, its use developments as a
transparent windows (as in Gothic architecture), up to the
greenhouses. Then, the industrial revolution came to help in t
he
emergence of large public buildings such as buildings of railways
and airports through the use of wide span and large expanses of
glass in the façades to enable the entry of light to dark interior
spaces. Later the international style emerged, which was most of its
façades of glass, and spread to all countries, and the architecture
transformed under it to timelessness and nowhere architecture.
The technique of glass façades developed and grownup till the
Glass Curtain Walls in recent decades, but refuse fully glazed
façades by architects and environmental scientists are no longer
acceptable anymore, because of a deep understanding of their
various functional properties, and of the evolution of new
technologies that have demonstrated the positive role of Glass
Curtain Wall (aesthetically, architecturally, environmentally,
socially, and structurally).
This article provided a brief overview on the history of the use
of the glass in architecture, concept of Glass Curtain Walls, and it’s
most important systems and the most important types of glass,
which used in it, to give you an idea of the available options of
systems and types. Then analyzed the functional properties of the
Glass Curtain Wall (glass façades), through a study of international
and local examples (Damascus).
