Glass Walls in Houses

Introduction

Contemporary architecture design has changed greatly and what one can see is the new way in which houses are built. Glass has become one of the biggest parts in the modern architectural design (Bradecki, 2016). Currently, many people use glass as their entire wall structure. Such houses are not only beautiful but also classy and attractive to look at, thus, enticing many to opt for such designs while building houses. However beautiful glass walls appear, they attract alarming detriments that will end up being costly to the homeowner because they are not only expensive but attract danger.

Critical Analysis of Glass Walls

Undeniably, glass is one of the most beautiful materials to use while building. It has many different properties as well as uses, thus, providing architectures with diverse possibilities as well as designs. More so aesthetically pleasing to the eye, hence, why so many people prefer using. They allow natural light to get into a house and when used to partition a place, they not only make it bright but also airy. Glass has the ability to transmit up to eighty percent of natural daylight in both of its direction without any yellowing (Dragic, Cavillon, Ballato & Ballato, 2018). Even if one closes the doors or windows, it can still allow natural light to pass through brightening the room. Hence it saves energy while lowering the electricity bills. More so, it is fully weather resistant. Meaning it can withstand the effects of rain, sun or wind and it can retain its appearance as well as integrity.

When a significant amount of glass gets used in any house the outcome is usually stunning and the house owner will end up being very happy with the new abode. More so, glass is lightweight thus, during construction the builders can use it on the upper flows without any special consideration taken into account on load bearing (Guiheneuf, Delaleux, Riou, Logerais & Durastanti, 2017). Additionally, glass does not conduct heat well thus, heat gets retained in the room. Lastly, glass is versatile thus, adding color, as well as texture during the manufacturing process, is not difficult.

However beautiful and modern glass walls look, they do possess other unpleasant attributes. Having glass walls can be very expensive not only to install but also to maintain. For one, the manufacturing process of glass is very expensive since it requires high energy because the raw materials need high temperatures during processing (Guiheneuf, Delaleux, Riou, Logerais & Durastanti, 2017). Therefore, the glass ultimately becomes a very expensive material. Hence, increasing the ultimate cost of a particular building. Renting or making such a place becomes very expensive. Additionally due to wear and tear of the material maintaining it is expensive. Glass walls are prone to breakage and once there is a crack or a small breakage one might have to replace the whole area of that glass depending with how they portioned them.

Also, glass shows dirt and stains more than other materials, therefore, they have to get cleaned every so often which can cost a lot. Glass absorbs heat, therefore acting as a greenhouse making it not suitable during hot and warm climates (Khuri, 2013). Such an effect will increase the air conditioning load. Not forgetting the material is poor in heat preservation thus, one has to constantly use air conditioners which is expensive.

The person living in a glass house is always on show (Bradecki, 2016). At night the house looks beautiful having the light from inside glows out as a shining beacon. Nonetheless, anyone on the outside can view inside with no restrictions. The homeowner will not have much privacy. Even if they live in own compound, still the workers who live within the compound can see inside. Thus, there is less privacy. For one to deal with this issue they have to install blinders or curtains. The installation, however, can become very costly especially when an individual has too much glass to cover.

In terms of durability, glass is also very fragile as compared to other materials. Hence, it is more susceptible to damage from ground movement or impact (Dragic, Cavillon, Ballato & Ballato, 2018). In case of an earthquake, the glasses will not survive. One should not use glass walls in areas that are prone to earthquake or they should limit the use of glass. Consequently, glass material cannot survive in every area because they are not durable. Additionally, when one as young children using glass walls can be a risky venture because children are not very careful and they engage in different types of games that might break the glass. Thus, it might not be a suitable option for a young family with children.

Another factor a person interested in using is cleaning the glass. The process can become a real pain to clean especially when they cover a huge area. Unless one can pay some extra coin for self-cleaning glass, the normal ones on their exterior require a commercial window cleaning contractor. On the inside, the homeowner can do it by themselves or pay someone to do it. The need for one to higher the contractor to clean the outside still incurs a cost. Thus, the glass is costly to maintain. Paying someone every now and then to do the cleaning work will cost the owner a lot as compared to them using the traditional materials of which one can clean themselves and they take time to show stains. Lastly, glass walls are not safe because they are easily penetrable by thieves. It takes less effort to break into such a home. Also, they can end up injuring an individual during breakage which might cause serious injuries.

Conclusion

Glass has taken pre-eminence as one of the most popular building material compared to the old ones. Nevertheless, one needs to take into consideration every factor before choosing it. Glass materials require more maintenance and will require extra care as compared to other materials. Thus, in my opinion, putting up glass walls no matter how attractive they are is not worth the effort of putting them up. For one purchasing them is expensive and maintaining them will become very hectic.

References

• Bradecki, T. (2016). Open Living Room Concept in Contemporary Houses - Lessons from the Design Process and Implementation. International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences & Arts SGEM, 461–467. Retrieved
• Dragic, P. D., Cavillon, M., Ballato, A., & Ballato, J. (2018). A unified materials approach to mitigating optical nonlinearities in optical fiber. II. A. Material additivity models and basic glass properties. International Journal of Applied Glass Science, 9(2), 278–287.
• Guiheneuf, V., Delaleux, F., Riou, O., Logerais, P.-O., & Durastanti, J.-F. (2017). Investigation of damp heat effects on glass properties for photovoltaic applications. Corrosion Engineering, Science & Technology, 52(3), 170–177.
• Khuri, F. (2013). Of Gdansk and Glass Houses. Cancer, 120(4), pp.612-613.