Transparent form-active system with structural glass

Free-form transparent wide-span spatial structures which have being constructed so far, are based on the concept of three sets of components, the structural components, usually steel elements to ensure both compressive and tensional capacity; the glass cladding elements for expressing transparency; and thirdly an in between set for connecting the cladding with the primary skeleton. Even though glass technology is becoming more and more promising, glass is still considered doubtful in a load-bearing capacity, which implies to a repetitive architectural and engineering repertoire. Nevertheless, in the last two decades there has been a tendency to explore the design and realization of pure structural glass domes [1, 2, 3,4]. The outcome of these experiments, resulted in glass domes of the same conservative geometry of a sphere of small spans between 5-12.5m. Therefore, the glass still has not reached its limits in terms of architectural forms and span size. Apparently, the combination of synclastic and anticlastic geometries applied for glass structures is still an unknown field and remains as a theoretical question whether or not there are possibilities to implement glass plates in the construction of free-form spatial structures, as a main load-bearing component. In respect to the emerging technologies of glass technology and computation, design strategies revolving around the assumption of using glass to realize a transparent form-active system, are presented through a new concept for an innovative connection method. In particular, the concept of connection relies on the composition of a transparent hybrid composite composed by thermally strengthened glass, sentry glass plus and woven fabric composite. Particularly, the composite has an extended part outwards of a reinforced glass plate, used for easy assembly and disassembly as well as the transfer of tensile forces and improving so the post breakage behavior. The complete system out of glass plates and joints is controlled by determining the appropriate stiffness during design. The ultimate target, is to apply the concept of this joining method to any free-form shell geometry constructed out of planar glass plates.