Architecture, Domestic glass, moulded glass. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Glass has always been one of the most popular and widely used building products for its ability to let light into buildings whilst providing protection against the elements. Over the past few years however, our obsession with glass has taken a new turn and its use in architecture is evolving. Architectural glass is becoming a must have in modern building and when architects set out to start developing new structures to create a dazzling city skyline, it seems as though most want to implement this style into their design.

From Inhabitat:

Brooklyn artist Spencer Finch’s largest artwork of his career will be revealed when the new Johns Hopkins Hospitalcomplex in Baltimore, MD opens next month…

…The 1.5 million square foot building will be a leading model of how medical care can be enhanced by colorful art and design. Finch’s work is what first greets visitors. Each aluminum panel within this massive curtain features two layers of glass through which Finch’s colorful alphabet gleams. The palette of 26 shades of colors, inspired by Claude Monet’s Impressionist landscape paintings, is meant to remind visitors of water’s calming features. Contrast is also a defining feature, with the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center wrapped in blue. The nearby Sheik Zayed Tower, for adult medical care, will shine in hues of green.

And so many architects and engineers are starting to use natural light and heat in an effort to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

However, if you’ve ever worked in a glass building – or even in front of a glass window – you have likely experienced significant temperature fluctuations depending on the time of day and weather conditions. A brightly shining sun can cause interior temperatures to rise by nearly 40° F, which can make workers uncomfortable.

Read the rest of the story here.

Reviving the manufacturing base of this county is a fairly complex proposition. This MarketWatch article highlights some of the trade and tax policy issues that have made outsourcing of manufacturing so attractive over the past few decades. In this post, however, I would like to discuss another factor: worker skills.

Here at SAGE, we have a vested interest in this issue.  Making electrically tintable window glass is a process inherently dependent on technology and highly skilled workers. We manufacture all of our dynamic glass in Faribault, Minnesota, and we are investing in a new $100 million high volume manufacturing plant next door to our existing facility.  The new plant is anticipated to add 200 permanent quality domestic jobs – exactly the kind of jobs that President Obama stated that the United States needs to generate.

In the days since the State of the Union address, much has been made of an apparent dearth of mid-level engineers; people who have a degree but aren’t necessarily doctoral-types working on the leading edge. There’s truth to the concern, but the larger truth is there’s a pressing need for better trained and skilled workers at just about every level of production.

Today’s version of manufacturing is more reliant on tech and brains than brawn. As a consequence, the skill sets required of plant floor workers have advanced well beyond those needed during America’s manufacturing heyday.  What once were thought of as skilled, blue collar positions – such as a machinist – have become skilled, high tech job positions. This Washington Post story details the changing skill sets required.

The skills gap is a large stumbling block on the path to a resurgence of manufacturing in America.

The good news is that we’ve solved the skills gap conundrum before. A country of farmers, shopkeepers and traders of natural resources (think lumber, plants, pelts, fish and minerals) pivoted to embrace the industrial revolution.  The emergence of industries such as shoe and textile manufacturing spawned factories requiring ” high tech” machines managed by a new type of worker with new skill sets. Those needs coincided with a spreading revolution in education in the country.

Many states made primary education compulsory and began to fund them with public dollars. Secondary schooling followed, and the skills acquired from the classroom created a workforce that helped fuel a world-changing industrial boom. Rather than simply exporting commodities, the U.S. began to build domestic industries that processed its raw materials into finished goods for consumption and trade.

Which brings us back to the present.  Our new generation of manufacturing need will once again require a hard look at education. A system that previously focused on basic literacy and numeracy has to become proficient in teaching the much more basic skill of learning how to learn new skills. Change is a constant and to keep up, we need students who expect to engage in a lifetime of learning. We then need to explore how that lifetime of learning can best happen – traditional four-year universities? Community colleges? Vocational schools? Union apprentice programs? Industry-sponsored programs? It all needs to be on the table.

Check it out here at the JOSDesinging.com blog.

Responding to criticisms that its ratings can be meaningless and easily gamed, the USGBC is introducing new rules so buildings must continually recertify and measure their energy use against their neighbors.

Fast Company’s Co.Exist blog has the details here.

From the Earthtechling blog:
In Georgia, aesthetics and ethics combine in the newly expanded and remodeled building that houses the Georgia Museum of Art (GMA) at the University of Georgia, Athens (UGA), which recently took LEED Gold certification. The remodel was designed with LEED certification in mind, and makes use of a number of green building systems.

This includes the use of natural daylighting in corridors and galleries, despite the fact that direct daylight can be harmful to works of art — the museum got around this with deeply recessed and shaded skylights that render all natural light in the building indirect.

Read the full article here.

Click here for the video recap:

Here’s how they stack up (from the Architect’s Guide to Glass and Metals blog):

cocoon tower design by tange atlier (Photo credit: .ad photo)

As legislative trends and market demands drive architects closer to the zero-carbon home, the pressure is on to ensure buildings are designed with energy-efficiency at their core. Every construction material is … With three panes in each Insulating Glass Unit (IGU), triple-glazing offers unprecedented levels of thermal insulation, as well as a host of other benefits that have the potential to transform our cities’ carbon credentials. But isn’t triple-glazing a bit overkill?

From World Architecture News’ Metro blog…