The Making of
Crystal Houses
FAIDRA OIKONOMOPOULOU and
TELESILLA BRISTOGIANNI
17/03/2021, 7 PM
ZOOM LECTURE
Zoom Link:
https://zoom.us/s/94672269778
The multi-award winning adhesively bonded cast glass block façade of the Crystal Houses project in Amsterdam was conceived by MVRDV architects and developed by a research group at TU Delft. Insights into the engineering challenges are presented, from the development of the system and its experimental validation to the daily, 7-month monitoring of the construction.
The Crystal Houses façade demonstrated the potential of the cast glass technology in creating threedimensional, loadbearing and freeform all-glass structures.
Based on the lessons learned from the Crystal Houses, new ideas and concepts of designing structures with cast glass are shown. Emphasis is given to the circularity of the design by creating reversible systems of recycled, interlocking cast glass components. Glass has finally escaped its 2-dimensional, transparent nature!
