german glass wonders

German Glass Building by SAL

For six weeks, my most beloved professor Jackie Gargus from The Ohio State University took myself and several students all around a good part of germanic Europe. I do not think I am exaggerating when I write that we walked probably for 12 hours a day going from one spectacular site to another as quickly as possible. We often had to run to find a restroom and skipped meals from time to time in pursuit of excellent architecture.

As we walked along quickly, I snapped as many photos as was humanly possible. These two buildings are such random germanic buildings that we walked by quite rapidly. If I knew where they were located, I am not sure it would make much of a difference. These are not particularly on any journalist's radar, but they are stunning nonetheless and this is why I am including them in my blog.

German Glass Building by SAL

I may be so bold as to write that German architects have perfected the use of glass. In fact, I wrote an article for The Architect's Newspaper about the addition to the Cleveland Museum of Art that was designed by Rafael Viñoly. In  my interview with Viñoly's firm, I was told that the team had sourced the new glass enclosure details in Germany.

The glass used at the Cleveland Museum of Art is similar to Sir Norman Foster's British Museum's glass and steel roof structure. In any glass roof structure, the type of glass is carefully selected so that the interior space does not become too overly heated nor too overly sunny. 

The first glass and steel structure in historical records was The Crystal Palace built in 1851 for The World's Fair in London. The architects and engineers did not quite get the glass "right" in that building as a tornado formed within causing a good deal of destruction. We have come a long way since then!