„MatGlass“: Materiality and authenticity of glass and glass construction in the building of high modernity.

The materiality and authenticity of glass and glass constructions of buildings from the high modern era have not been the focus of basic research until now. In today's society, the significance of glass as a material has declined to such an extent that even monument conservators sometimes regard glass and glass constructions of secular buildings from the industrialization or high-modern era as disposable mass. The practice of replacing glass results in the irretrievable loss of important testimonies to the history of time and technology.

In order to counteract this situation, the project partners, the Institute of Building Construction at the TU Dresden and the Professorship in Materials and Preservation Science at the University of Bamberg, want to jointly establish a scientific basis on the subject of industrially produced glazing and its use in building constructions.

The project examines the period from about 1880 to about 1970 and thus covers the area of high modernism. With the High Modern period, an important time period is examined in more detail, into which two significant changes in technology fall: first, the transition from blown flat glass to drawn glass in the early 20th century, and second, the introduction of float glass in the 1960s.

The overarching goal is to manifest the importance of the original glass product as an indispensable and irreplaceable element of authenticity and thus of the cultural significance of buildings of high modernity. The living character of industrially produced glass from the time before the introduction of float glass is a result of the manufacturing processes. It is precisely this supposed deficiency that contributes to the fascinating duality and unique materiality of industrially produced glass: due to its translucent properties in the wavelength range of visible light, on the one hand it is transparent and disembodied, while on the other hand the light passing through is focused or scattered at the optical defects, creating a living structure. Due to the almost perfect nature of today's float glass, it completely lacks these characteristic properties. Therefore, when replacing historical glass, both authenticity and materiality are lost.

The aim of this research project is to identify characteristic construction types of glass elements from the industrialization period and to define methods for their recognition. This objective requires answering the following research questions: 

• What are the main lines and innovations characterizing the use of glass and glass constructions in the building industry?
• How can material-specific and constructive innovations in glass technology and glass construction be identified, appreciated and communicated as elements constituting monuments?

Based on the research results, the aim is to create an increased awareness of historic preservation with regard to the preservation of historic flat glass. The goal is to provide historic preservationists with a tool so that the value of flat glass and glass structures can be recognized as significant elements of the authenticity of buildings in the study area and evaluated accordingly. To this end, an evaluation scheme will be created that focuses particularly on the original flat glass and glass construction of high modernist buildings.