Investigations of Glass’s Structural Potential SUNY at Buffalo : Material Cultures
Graduate Students : Timothy Ruhl and Olivia Arcara Professor : Georg Rafailidis
Our presentation in and investigation into the joining of glass. In our investigations of glass as an architectural system one thing that remained consistent in all precedent studies is that the glass was always held into place using a foreign material. Glass curtain walls use a combination of foreign objects to support the structure. The curtain wall relies on silicone and metal spider clips to hold the glass in place. Our question is how can we join glass together without the need of a supporting material? This investigation into the joint looks into glass’s inherent structural properties. We know that glass works better in compression than in tension, and that glass wants to be small. By using these two strong points of glass we have developed a series of designs and construction methods focusing on the creation of a modular system that relies solely on glass’s natural strength of compression, and friction.
ARC 606 GLASS, RAFAILIDIS
TIMOTHY RUHL.OLIVIA ROSE ARCARA