New Methods in Building -- Will Glass Replace Clay Bricks?

Already a while ago I stumbled upon an article about quite a cool architectural project. It resulted in the conversion of a traditional brick facade in Amsterdam.

The original building was located in the most expensive shopping street of Amsterdam, the P.C. Hooftstraat. The project developer took the original facade down and replaced it partially with a facade made out of shiny glass bricks. Yes, glass bricks.

The glass facade in all it's glory. Image source: dearchitect.nl

The Technical Nitty Gritty

In an article (Dutch only :/) on a Dutch architecture website, some interesting design and construction details are discussed.

It turns out for example, that the glass bricks are 10 times stronger than traditional clay bricks. Something you might not expect from the fragile glass as we know it. Glass bricks are traditionally hollow, however, to avoid unwanted refraction of the light (and thus affecting visibility through the glass), the glass bricks in the facade were solid.

The individual bricks were manufactured by Italian glass specialists and glued together with glue normally used by dentists. I mean, does it get any more exciting than this! Being an engineer myself, these facts put a big grin on my face!

If you are interested in more technical details regarding the glass facade, here's the scientific paper discussing every little detail.

Here's a cool video showing the whole building process in just a few minutes:

When in Amsterdam...

No, I'm not talking about smoking weed or the red light district. A few weekends ago I was in Amsterdam and I happened to be quite close to the P.C. Hooftstraat (where the glass facade building is located). I decided to go and check out the facade myself. When I got there I was excited but also a bit disappointed. Although the facade was clearly still there, the bottom of it was partially covered:

Unfortunately it was partially covered up.

Something that made me happy though, was the graffiti on the plywood walls covering up the facade. You see, the building is owned by Chanel, the fancy fashion brand. I'm really not a fan of the high-class fashion industry. Why? Well because of many reasons, for example, the reason discussed in this article. With "CULTURE STATUS" the graffiti artist gave sort of a middle finger to Chanel. At least that's how I see it :)

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Anyways, apart from the fact that Chanel owns the building, I think it is a really cool idea architecturally executed with perfection. If I would ever have the opportunity to design my own place, I would definitely consider my options regarding the use of glass in the construction.

What do you guys think?