Glass in the Anthropocene: Explorations with a Magical Material
Researcher
Heliotope Architecture
Published
06 November 2024
Funding
Design Strategy Grant
In the age of the Anthropocene, Heliotope seeks to explore the creative possibilities for glass gleaned from the circular economy.
Architecture is considered by many as the manipulation of light. Glass is a transcendental / mercurial material, a magical liquid that captures and distributes sun light.
Glass can go through an endless cycle of being melted and reshaped, however it is cheaper and easier to import new glass than to recycle it, and so Australia sends 62,000 tonnes of glass to landfill each year (the equivalent of roughly 11,200,000,000 mega joules of embodied energy).
Architecture – and architects – are in a position to challenge material relations by incorporating circular economy materials into practice. This research seeks to explore the creative possibilities for glass gleaned from the circular economy. We look to use low energy interventions – cutting, crushing, stacking and attaching – to reimagine its application and aesthetic in a contemporary context.
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