Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.NYC, where I live, is a city built in large part from glass. It\u2019s not the famed sheet-glass skyscrapers that catch my eye, though, but something more mundane: the patchwork of glass blocks embedded, unceremoniously, into building facades across town. Glass blocks proliferated globally during the 20th century before falling from fashion, making them today as ubiquitous as they are unloved. And yet this past year, in homes from Kansas City to Kreuzberg, the humble glass block is making a clear comeback.\u00a0Patented by Swiss engineer Gustave Falconnier in 1886, the original glass blocks were faceted to allow filtered light into factories. In the 1920s, with the Art Deco and Bauhaus movements\u2019 fixation on geometry, glass blocks became a mainstay of residential architecture. This period was so bananas for blocks that entire buildings, such as Pierre Chareau\u2019s Maison de Verre, were constructed from them. Then, after fading from fashion mid-century, blocks resurfaced in the 1980s, becoming newly synonymous with that era\u2019s oversaturated, Miami Vice aesthetic \u2014 equal parts seedy and sexy. This bad reputation has plagued them ever since.Glass blocks are, today, the Marmite of building materials, inspiring both love and hate. Abby Happel, a Chicago-based architect, is in the former camp. \u201cI have a thing for buildings with glass blocks,\u201d she says, explaining how last year, this obsession led her to create @sexyglassblock, an Instagram account cataloguing archival and contemporary examples. \u201cSometimes I have to ask myself: do I actually like this building? Or does it just have a glass block in it?\u201dMost people said they hated glass blocks, that they reminded them of their grandma\u2019s house. Well, maybe your grandma has better taste than youWhile the page\u2019s posts can amass more than 250,000 likes, initially the feedback was polarised. \u201cMost responses were from people saying they hated glass blocks, that they reminded them of their grandma\u2019s house,\u201d she says. \u201cWell, maybe your grandma has better taste than you.\u201dThis bygone association is precisely what drew designer Madelynn Hudson to use glass blocks in a recent Kansas City renovation. The guest bathroom features a partition constructed from alpha glass blocks, which have a circular motif embedded within the block\u2019s square. When stacked, this style of block creates a plane evoking a sheet of bubble wrap. \u201cThe geometric repetition \u2014 it\u2019s pure Deco,\u201d Hudson says. \u201cHistory repeats itself, and we\u2019re now experiencing an Art Deco revival. We\u2019re in the 1920s again, after all.\u201dBut the glass block\u2019s 1980s connection is equally compelling for Hudson. \u201cPeople are afraid of glass blocks because of how cost-effective they are, and so how overused they became,\u201d she says, adding that the material\u2019s relative affordability is an asset with today\u2019s rising construction costs.\u00a0\u201cWere there some gaudy things happening in the 1980s? Oh, of course. But we have enough distance from that decade now to really see the interesting and cool design elements,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re coming out of a period of organic minimalism,\u201d she adds. \u201cThat preference is giving way to a desire for something more eventful, expressive and bold.\u201dThe geometric uniformity attracted ceramicist and designer Danny Kaplan to use them in his newly completed Manhattan home and showroom, designed alongside architect Peter Martin of Ashe Leandro. \u201cTheir grid-like pattern juxtaposes beautifully with the organic forms of my ceramics,\u201d says Kaplan. He opted for Doric glass blocks, which feature wide vertical ribbing that underscores the material\u2019s clean lines. This more singular style of block, rather than the rippled-water Nubio style overplayed in the last century, ensures the space feels contemporary.Glass blocks are, in fact, the first thing visitors to Kaplan\u2019s home-slash-showroom encounter. As elevator doors open into the space, diaphanous glass-block partitions create an intimate foyer. Blocks are used in this way throughout the space, segmenting the open-plan loft without making it feel dark. \u201cThey delineate spaces in a visually open way,\u201d Kaplan says. \u201cThe translucency adds a luminous quality to the interiors, filtering natural light while maintaining an element of privacy.\u201dArchitecture practice Flack Studio is likewise captivated by the visual qualities of glass blocks. \u201cThanks to their chunkiness, they reflect light in a super dynamic way,\u201d says founder David Flack. For a recent Melbourne project, Flack constructed exterior walls from glass blocks. \u201cA flat glass panel has a direct relationship with the landscape, whereas the glass block is much more abstract, distorting the view,\u201d he says. \u201cIt invites your imagination to fill in the gaps between what you can see and what you want to see.\u201dRecent manufacturing developments have introduced a new breed of glass blocks with enhanced thermal insulation and energy efficiency, akin to your classic double-glazed unit. For Flack, the glass block is chic without sacrificing sustainability.It\u2019s not just the material itself that\u2019s evolving, but the way designers are approaching it. In a residential project by Studio Beck on Australia\u2019s Gold Coast, for example, glass blocks form the igloo-like structure of a bathtub. For an apartment in Berlin\u2019s Kreuzberg neighbourhood, meanwhile, architecture practice Studio Karhard created a glass-block wall in the living room, backlit by programmable LED panels.Glass blocks are well suited for innovative application, says Karhard co-founder Thomas Karsten: \u201cIt\u2019s a very old material that has a futuristic quality. It works as well today as it did 100 years ago.\u201dFind out about our latest stories first \u2014 follow @ft_houseandhome on Instagram<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.NYC, where I live, is a city built in large part from glass. It\u2019s not the famed sheet-glass skyscrapers that catch my eye, though, but something<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-155957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155959,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155957\/revisions\/155959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}