Last August, the MIT Media Lab’s Mediated Matter Group headed by Neri Oxman, in partnership with the MIT Glass Lab and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, unveiled a fascinating novel way to 3D print glass previously not possible.

Yes, glass—that awesome material which inspires ephemerality and mysticism, fragility and elegance—can now be 3-D printed.

Oxman and her team uses a platform called G3DP, which can print optically transparent glass to such geometric precision that they influence the play of light passing through.  G3DP uses two heated chambers for this purpose: the upper chamber is a kiln that heats glass to more than 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit, while the lower chamber is where glass continues to be heated and then cooled down, a process called “annealing.”  Then the syrupy glass is oozed out of an alumina-zircon-silica nozzle that moves around accordingly.  We’ve seen concrete being piped out to 3-D print walls and other structures, but it’s nowhere as romantic and enchanting as seeing glass take on ever so complex forms.

Glass for Architecture

The big question is how will 3-D printing transform architectural glass from now on?

Glass has always been a fundamental architectural and engineering material.  Its virtues of modernity, purity, elegance, and transparency were so lovingly extolled in a 1935 article by Le Corbusier, who foresaw glass being an enduring feature of the urban building in the “new machine age”.  And true enough glass-clad buildings are still synonymous with sleek modernity.

“The ‘glass wall’, according to Le Corbusier, “is the conquest of the Modern Age.”  Simply by opening up the building structure and forgoing the requisite stone façade, glass, made available the life-giving element of sunlight.  In very poetic words, he added: “Glass is the most miraculous means of restoring the law of the sun.”

Such was the profound respect and awe of Le Corbusier for the perfection of plate glass, then still in its relative infancy, it being only 84 years since Joseph Paxton used it to construct the Crystal Palace back in 1851.

John Lewis Department Store in England.

If Le Corbusier were still around, he’d be amazed at the majestic glass skins of today’s buildings and skyscrapers.  Case in point: the John Lewis Department Store in in Leicester, England, featuring a lace-like glass façade capable of

Or the Apple retail stores such as the one in newly opened in China, boasting of a 50-foot(!) all-glass façade with nary a column, as well as the similarly all-glass Glass Lantern store at the Zorlu Center in Istanbul Turkey last year.  It’s glass, glass, glass everywhere.  The result: succinct minimalism and restrained elegance unlike no other.

Towards Sustainability

Today’s architectural glass is a far cry from those used in the past.  Early glass used only single glazing; true, it offered clear views of the outside world, but it also had poor ability to manage heat flow and solar gain, two aspects that are important to sustainability.  Modern plate glass have become high-performance over the decades, especially triple-glazed windows that ramp up insulation, smart glass that instantly turn from transparent to opaque in response to the sun’s glare, and even glass that can capture solar energy using embedded solar cells.

Hearst Tower in New York

Despite these innovations, Lloyd Alter of Treehugger is generally wary of buildings that employ floor-to-ceiling glass walls.  Architects’ love affair with glass often favors design over function and sustainability.

But glass is steadily evolving, especially now that 3-D printing can be used to manufacture it.  With 3-D printing’s precision, even the interior surfaces of glass can be designed as intricately as needed, making it possible for glass skins to accommodate light, fiber optics, water, and even biological matter within its veins.  For now Oxman’s 3-D printer for glass is still within the realm of lovely highly ornate vases but she looks forward to the day the technology can be scaled up for architectural needs that matter.