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Smashing Glass Blocks

Glass block is horrible. Don't use it. Please don't use it. Did I mention that it is pretty horrific? It is. Don't use it. That is all.

Jeff Pelletier is the Managing Principal and Founder of Board & Vellum, an architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture firm in Seattle, Washington.
Jeff Pelletier
July 27, 2011

This post is going to be fun. And I'm not alone. Life of an Architect (a great read as well) has spoken at length about this (here, and here). But seeing as I have my own voice, I wanted to write about this for a while. So let's just get this right out there:

Glass block is nothing short of horrible.

There's, of course, a great modernist beginning to glass block that you can read on the links above. It started out pretty great and just fell apart REAL quickly. Let's take a stroll back to the 1980's and discuss where things went so wrong.

See, glass blocks started out as an inventive building material that got a lot of architects excited. It was a structural material that could support some weight, had insulating value, and let light pass through while still preserving some privacy. How innovative! How cool!

How drop dead ugly.

In the 1980's glass block got used in so many horrible conditions that I think it killed any chance of it being considered by me. Luckily, I get to avoid the question of if I would have used it back in the 80's as an architect because it was so popular and requested by clients. I wasn't an architect in the 80's and can step aside from that issue.

But I can't step aside from images such as this:

Wow, that looks like one luxurious bathroom! Or how about this?

Really? Cabinets wouldn't work about 50 times better than ugly glass blocks? Oh, wait...

Rounded blocks would look great on top of this sad little wall, don't you think?

Sigh.

It is just not good. That is really all that sums it up.

It shouldn't be a room divider, it shouldn't be near your shower, it makes for an ugly bar or island, and it shouldn't be visible anywhere on the exterior of your home unless you live in some crazy Art Deco home. If you bought your house and it came that way, you get a pass. But if you are considering using it please give me a call right now and I'll talk you through it. We can get through this together.

I've posted before how architecture should be beautiful and how that alone was reason enough to do something. See here. That thought alone is enough for me to plead and beg to not use glass block. It is ugly! I've never seen an instance where I liked it and especially I've never seen an instance where something else (truly, almost anything) would have been better.

Smash that glass block and move on to something better. Your local architect is standing by.

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