Glass structures, from theory to practice

In the last century and especially after the modern movement, the architects emphasized more on the 'lightness' and 'transparency' of the buildings, pushing towards fully glazed envelopes. Le Corbusier stated the glass envelope as the 'minimum membrane' between indoors and outdoors. Today, architects are not satisfied by the natural illumination and panorama views which is provided by the glass skins, but they are looking after something more. They want to create the whole building, from the beams and the columns to the ceilings and the roofs from glass. Their desire to use glass as a structural element has pushed the architects and researchers towards conducting practical experiments on the structural capacity of this material. Many all-glass prototypes and structures have been constructed in this regard. Following the above mentioned desire, the main subject of this paper would be confined to distinguishing of potentials and abilities of the glass structures. Thus after a quick review of the historical procedure and the structural characteristics of the glass, glass structures are categorized based on their primary establishing elements. Then the results on creation of different architectural spaces and the built proposals are checked, concerning their form and structural behavior. The objective of this study is to learn about experiences of the structural glass masterpieces in the new age.