Glass brick

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Architectural glass brick admits light while obscuring vision to provide privacy. Near the top of the wall straight ahead, and to the upper middle of this picture are glass brick windows shielding fluorescent lights so that they cannot be vandalized. This also provides electrical safety by keeping wiring inaccessible from the wet areas.

Glass brick, also known as glass block, is an architectural element made from glass used in areas where privacy or visual obscuration is desired while admitting light, such as underground parking garages, washrooms, and municipal swimming baths. Glass block was originally developed in the early 1900s to provide natural light in industrial factories.

Security and safety uses

Glass brick can admit light without compromising security, since a typical size of glass brick is 8 by 8 inches, fitting within the lattice of standard 8 by 16 inch cinderblock walls.

Electrical circuits such as lights can be isolated by placing them in a very small room or passageway outside the area being illuminated, such that no electrical leakage is possible. This also helps prevent vandalism and theft of bulbs, or removal of bulbs (e.g. to perpetrate crime.)

Alternate view of glass brick labyrinths, used to obscure clear visual line of sight into women's washroom on the left, and men's washroom on the right.

Some washrooms such as those in Dundas Square, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, have glassbrick windows that run all the way around the washroom, to create an illusion of natural light from all directions. This requires small passageways that run all the way around the outside of the room, for servicing the light sources.

Solid glass blocks are gaining popularity to provide additional security for commercial and institutional walls as well. Used in areas like subway stations and educational buildings in cities like New York and Boston these blocks offer 3" thick glass and are very difficult to break by vandals. In addition solid security glass blocks also have longer fire ratings of 90 minutes for a window providing improved security to people inside the buildings.

Privacy

Glass brick is often used to create visual privacy barriers, such as shown in the illustration above, where it has been used to create gender privacy through a doorless labyrinth that forms a washroom/changeroom entrance that allows light to pass, unrestricted, but distorts visual coherent light to such a degree as to provide reasonable privacy.

Solid glass blocks can also offer improved privacy as well. Some are available with stippled finishes on the outside to make them difficult to see through. Other prismatic privacy patterns can also increase privacy for homeowners and building owners alike.

Hygiene

Glass brick is as easily decontaminated as ceramic tile, so it is suitable for wet areas such as changerooms, washrooms, and baths.

Glass brick in architecture

This section requires expansion.

Glass block floor in the Michigan State Capitol

• Maison de Verre (French for House of Glass) in Paris, France
• Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Glass blocks

• Masonry Magazine: Architects are Rediscovering Glass Block