I’ve always been intrigued by glass – so intrigued I built my family a glass house and developed an even larger project, Vetro, with 104,000 square-feet of it. And while we architects today use several styles of glass mostly for aesthetic purposes, we nevertheless continue to experiment with the material.
For example, the unique use of glass at Vetro results in a special design. If you look at the building, and focus on the different colored panes of glass, there’s a certain vertical rhythm to the structure. Every third floor appears “super-clear” from the outside, and every fourth floor is tinted a slightly darker blue. The look of the glass from the inside, however, is perfectly clear; residents see no difference when they look outside. It’s an amazing effect from the inside and out.
The fact that glass’s qualities change with the seasons also captured my imagination. Unlike many materials, it offers a reflective surface in the summer, as it attempts to keep the enclosed area cooler, but in the winter, glass can be more absorptive, trapping warmth from the sun. It’s an added bonus that we appreciate in my home.
Of course, for me the most exciting thing about a glass building is the feeling of occupying open-space, at floor four or 40. There are no boundaries, no intrusive borders, edges or barriers, and you can let nature in just as it is.
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