Structural use of glass

The main purpose of this project is to learn how glass behaves as a construction material. The project is divided into two parts:

• Structural analysis of glass implemented in The House of Music in Aalborg

• Laboratory experiments with glass

 

Glass is getting more popular not only as a facade solution but also as a bearing construction material and it gives an architectural expression in building solutions. To use glass as a structural material creates many factors to be considered. It gives architectural advantages and engineering disadvantages.

 

Advantages: Provides many opportunities in the architectural expression because the transparency, manufacturing in many structural forms, provides more light into the building.

 

Disadvantages: Porous material, economically expensive, specific dimensions provides a challenge with transporting, the strength decreases over time as a function of load size and duration, connection challenges, low tensile strength, expensive to repair.

The laboratory experiment provided many results to analyse and compare with the theoretical knowledge. The conclusion of this project was that it gave us the means to design in glass as structural bearing material, for future constructions