In architecture's historic quest for transparency, the relationship between glass and buildings has evolved through the conquest of technical limitations, presenting the current generation of architects with enriched formal and material possibilities.

The invention of glass took place, it seems, almost by accident, around 4000 years ago in the eastern Mediterranean. Beneath an ancient pottery kiln, the fused silica of pots combined with the alkaline ash of the hearth below. By 1500 BC, moulded and pressed glass vessels were commonplace in Egypt and the skills to make them had spread to Europe. The northward expansion of the Roman Empire lead to the establishment of a thriving glass industry in the provinces of Saone and Rhine, employing craftsmen from Syria and Alexandria. The Latin term glesum (from a Germanic word meaning transparent or lustrous) was used to describe the versatile substance

Two thousand years passed between the initial serendipitous discovery and the appearance of blown glass, which led to the production of thin transparent sheets strong enough for windows. This marked the beginning of a symbiosis between glass and buildings. As Michael Wigginton notes: 'With this development, new conceptual languages in architecture became possible, which are still being developed and explored; from the simple provision of light and view without a loss of warmth, to the creation of conceptual and technical masterpieces which derived their essential quality from this wonderful material.

Historically, the relationship between glass and architecture is at its most sophisticated when transcending technical limitations, notably those imposed by load-bearing masonry construction which restricted the width of window openings. The first break with convention was the Gothic exoskeleton; the stone frames and flying buttresses of medieval cathedrals made possible unprecedentedly tall, arched windows composed of myriad fragments of jewel-like glass. Notions of illumination were spiritual as well as literal; the sumptuous, stained glass panels efficiently disseminated Biblical narratives to a largely illiterate populace. The architectural quest for transparency, weightlessness and luminosity began, in effect, with the radiant membranes of coloured light in cavernous Gothic cathedrals.

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