Transparency with Glass in Architecture

Buildings that use glass on their facades allow for visibility from the inside and even the outside, depending on the nature of the glass used. What makes glass the material of choice for building exteriors is properties like transparency, allowing for maximum natural light flow, solar control and sheer elegance, among others.

1. Sipoo Upper Secondary School

Sipoo Upper Secondary School / IT College, designed by K2S Architects Ltd is located in the town of Sipoo, close to Helsinki, Finland. The L-shaped pavilion-like glass building forms the last corner of an existing school campus. The urban setting is dominated by two curved yards; a larger one towards the campus garden and a smaller court yard connected to the main road. The two curved transparent glass façades don't just open up the school towards the surrounding town, but also provide view from one classroom to another and strengthen the sense of community within the school.

The street side facade is broken up into smaller volumes to relate to the scale of the surrounding villas. A cast-on-site concrete stair topped by a large conical top light forms the focal point in the central lobby space. This space forms the heart of the building, both spatially and functionally. While performing the typical functions of entrance and staircase, it also acts as a space where students can meet up when not at class. A small mediatheaque and a café in the southern wing open up towards the central lobby. The class rooms are reduced in their material palette into industrial IT-workshops.

2. Shanghai, Exterior Office Building

Shanghai, Exterior Office Building in Atelier Deshaus is a three-story building encloses a green yard with a steel and glass framework. This building simply looks like a glass box. The first floor is elevated and only houses the reception and a restaurant. We took into consideration the views not only from the interior but also from the exterior. This building looks like a cube covered with a glass curtain wall. While clearly defining the private space in the interior, the transparent glass walls also create a visual communication to the landscapes inside and outside.

In this way, the ground floor spaces flow from the central garden to the exterior landscape and an uninterrupted view goes through the building. The inside volume is surfaced with a printed glass curtain wall. Glass with “broken ice” pattern is chosen for this building. It is adopted from a kind of traditional Chinese interior decoration. The patterns nicely represents that they keep the unity, even when putting the different pieces together.

3. Theatre Agora

Theatre Agora located at in the Dutch city of Lelystad Austria. This building is mostly glass and steel shaded by an outer façade of a glittering mesh more at the nights. The appearance is impacted by changes in light as well as by proximity and viewing angles. The muted pattern on the outer mesh is repetitive and meant to symbolize the sonority repetition brings to music.

4. Sport Architecture building Siauliai arena

Sport Architecture Building is glazed with luxury glass which imparts to the building a design sophisticated look. The architects wished for it to appear as a chameleon; therefore choosing holographic glass for the facade. The facade shades change with changing lighting: in bright sunlight it looks like a vivid playful rainbow, whereas cloudy or rainy settings give it a calm and solid view.