WORDS Jo Buitendach PHOTOS Filip Dujardin (Paddenbroek), Matthew Bradley/Whatiftheworld (Athi-Patra Ruga), courtesy Of Origins Centre, Supplied
It provides shelter, items essential to daily life, and so much beauty. We take a deep dive into the crystal-clear, cutting-edge fields of glass design, architecture and art.
2022 was the United Nations’ International Year of Glass. Who knew? For this unexpected celebration, the global organisation hailed the material’s countless uses – from the optical fibres that keep the internet going to storing Covid vaccines. Glass sheets are essential to solar cells; telescope glass optics help scientists study the universe; and, of course, there’s glass art and its ability to show the full colour spectrum.
IT’S ALL IN THE PAST
Glass is integral to technology today, but the sand-based material has a long history. There is naturally occurring volcanic glass such as obsidian, but the earliest examples of humans manufacturing glass date to 3500 BC in Egypt and eastern Mesopotamia.
Closer to home, the study of glass beads uncovered in archaeological excavations tells us a lot about our history. In March 2022, the Origins Centre in Joburg held an exhibition entitled “Navigating the past through glass beads”. It examined African east coast trade routes, and our historic glass-bead industry. “Glass beads have been imported into southern and eastern Africa for at least 1 000 years, mostly landing at ports on the east coast before being traded inland,” says Origins Centre curator Tammy Hodgskiss Reynard. Glass artist Martli Jansen van Rensburg and her team at Smelt Glass Studio created an installation for the event, paying homage to glass beads and their importance in South Africa.
WE SEE THE FUTURE
Yes, Saudi Arabia’s new mega-development NEOM seems like something out of a dystopian novel. A major component of the project is The Line, a future city that will accommodate nine- million people and be built on just 34 square kilometres. By offering an approach to urban planning called “Zero Gravity Urbanism”, city functions will be layered vertically. The Line will be set within a jaw-dropping glass wall (two huge horizontal skyscrapers) stretching across the desert.
STAIN ON MANKIND
Stained glass is mostly associated with grand cathedral windows or iconic lamps made by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Putting tradition aside, though, there are some amazing artists reinterpreting this coloured-glass art form.
Tom Fruin is a contemporary American sculptor known for his large-scale steel and Plexiglass installations. He created his first public sculpture, Watertower, in 2012 to pay homage to the rooftop water towers synonymous with New York. His 2022 exhibition “From Sea to Shining Sea” was a salute to the 10-year anniversary of Watertower, which is still visible from Pier 17 in the Big Apple. One of the artworks on display, titled Hi 5 Taxi Cab, was composed of actual city signage advertising a now-demolished taxi depot and repair garage. The work was inspired by another iconic sculpture on view from Pier 17 – the Statue of Liberty, with her hand raised, not unlike a high-five, in a playful reference to the hailing of a New York City taxi cab.
Umtata-born artist Athi-Patra Ruga is well known for engaging with themes of queerness, generational trauma and liberation. Although he creates videos and costumes too, his 2020 exhibition “Interior/Exterior / Dramatis Personae”, shown at WHATIFTHEWORLD in Cape Town, focused on tapestries and an array of exquisite stained-glass works.
BLOW BY BLOW
Perhaps due in part to the Netflix series Blown Away, the popularity of glass blowing is on the rise. The heat, the science, the drama and romance – who knew it could be so addictive?
Glass blowing is a technique where molten glass is shaped by blowing into it, using a pipe and other tools. The Tshwane University of Technology is the only tertiary institution on the African continent that offers training in this discipline. Martli Jansen van Rensburg is a lecturer at the university, as well as an artist and director of Smelt Glass Studio, the only open-access glass-blowing studio in the country. She explains that the process of glass blowing and sculpting is like a dance: “It takes total focus. You use both arms, and your whole body. With the help of an assistant, you blow, squash and pull the glass. It takes 20 minutes to an hour to make a piece – and you need to keep it liquid until you’re happy. Then you stop and freeze it in time.”
A Glacier vase and polished objet by South African artist David Reade.
David Reade, one of South Africa’s pre-eminent glass blowers, works out of his studio in Cape Town, where he creates both sculptural and functional work from “true Cape sand”. Working among hot furnaces since he was a teenager, his objets d’art are sumptuous, gem-like pieces, containing swirls of colour that delicately catch the light.
THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT
Conservatories (or greenhouses) perfectly illustrate the functionality and beauty of glass. It’s the key element in these transparent buildings, which give lush greenery from around the world an opportunity to grow out of season and far from home.
The Jewel Box in Forest Park, St Louis, in the US was built in 1936, but recently received a $3.5-million refurbishment. This superb example of Art Deco design has unconventional cantilevered, vertical glass walls that rise majestically.
London’s brutalist Barbican complex is, in fact, home to the second-largest conservatory in the city. Designed by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, it opened to the public in 1984 and boasts more than 2 000 species of plants. It is a lush, tropical oasis in an often cold and grey environment.
PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN GLASS HOUSES
The Glass House in Connecticut, designed by architect Philip Johnson in 1949, is a recognised US National Trust Site. Inspired by Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, the Glass House is simple but perfectly proportioned. The entire structure is surrounded by clear glass panels that reflect the surrounding trees and scenery.
“I thought it’d be nice to have a place where you could swivel all the way around and see the whole place, which is what you can do here,” said Johnson said of the house in 1991. “I claim it’s the only house in the world where you can see the sunset and the moonrise at the same time, standing in the same spot.”
SANTAMBROGIOMILANO is an Italian company that specialises in boundary-breaking glass design. Its projects include La Terrazza, a private home in Milan, with a set of pergolas and outdoor furniture made entirely of glass to allow for unobstructed city views. But we think it’s the company’s most recent undertaking that really dazzles: The Glass House will be constructed in Switzerland, and will boast three transparent floors made entirely of glass. According to the company, “It will be like living in a forest, where climbing the glass stairs will make you feel like you are climbing high into the treetops.”
Casa Biblioteca, or Library House, was created in 2015 by Matteo Arnone and Pep Pons (formerly of Atelier Branco) as a temporary haven for a client to think and read. It’s situated in the small town of Vinhedo near São Paulo, and is made of in-situ cast concrete, steel, garapa wood – and a whole lot of glass. The open space is defined by varying elevations and almost entirely wrapped in a glazed facade with iron profiling. The architects were inspired by a local architectural movement of the 1950s known as “the Paulistano tradition”, which embraced concrete structures and heavier massing.
Belgian firm Jo Taillieu Architecten has worked on several interesting glass projects, but one stands out. Paddenbroek is a rural education centre that focuses on nature, agriculture and tourism. Using an original farmhouse structure, the site metamorphosed after the house was dismantled, and glass and steel were added around it to maximise the flexibility and use of space. The goal was to design a generous building that could provide comfort in all weather conditions.
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