The Intrinsic Value of Glass
by Tom Morris
How much do you know about glass? It's strong and it's clear and it's everywhere. You know that. Look down at your smartphone – there's a remarkably thin and robust sheet of glass there. Look out of the window: glass. Think of your oven door, a cup of water, a vase…
But did you know, for example, that glass is an infinitely recyclable material? Or that there are hundreds of thousands of varieties, each using a mixture of ingredients and most including sand, lime, and/or soda. (It is the sand, or silicon dioxide, that makes glass transparent.) And did you know that scientists are still debating whether the material is a solid or a liquid, because it has the properties of both, but is neither, really.
Wine Culture Collection
"Glass has shaped the world more than any other substance, and in many, sneaky ways, it's the defining material of the human era."
Glass is something of a miracle material. Its history stems back 4,000 years, to Mesopotamia, when the by-products of metalworking were used for decorative purposes. The material continued to be used in the Bronze Age, but it wasn't until the 15th Century BC that glass as we know it today was developed.
The term itself was invented by the Romans; they were the ones who realised that this material – which enjoyed a status close to a precious stone at that point – could be made molten and then inflated (glass-blown) and subsequently turned into shapes by placing the liquid material into moulds. This discovery was made in about 50 BC, in Phoenicia (what is today Lebanon), and was relayed across the Roman empire. Its use then was mostly practical: cups, bowls, vessels to carry things in. But the Romans were also the first to realise it was flexible, resilient and transparent enough to be used as windows. Soon, the material was used for its decorative qualities, too – the Romans used it to create small cameos in portraiture. Eventually, the material was shipped around the world. There have been examples of Roman glassware found in China and India, a testament to the material's durability.
Boris Collection
Glass's qualities have since been embraced and developed internationally; important trade centres around the world exploited it in various ways over the following centuries. It was used for church windows in Europe during the Gothic era. African states, notably Benin, used it to make jewellery. On the Venetian island of Murano, a type of uncommonly clear glass similar to crystal was developed and also used for decorative purposes. And it remained a craft material until the 19th Century, when hand-operated machines were invented that could create bottles and other glass items on a near-industrial scale.
Today, of course, glass has many uses. Tableware, for starters. But also so many other touch-points in the home. Its large-scale application has grown as technology has developed – because glass is an electrical insulator and transmits light, it is used to make fibre-optic cables, which carry information as signals of light moving at 124,188 miles per second. And because its strength has increased, it is used extensively in industrial architecture, from stairways to skyscraper-high fenestration. It is strong and practical enough to be used to provide protection from X-Rays, in radiology departments, and is involved in creating solar panels.
These applications showcase the material's strength, its versatility, and its transformational quality. But it is also malleable. Glass can be softened and resoftened repeatedly, a process that does not affect the material's quality, making it infinitely recyclable. The glass you drink water from might previously have been a jar, or a bottle – it might have had several lives already. One of the world's most ancient materials could also play a crucial role in the future.
Metropole Collection
It is a material with soul. Few materials are as simultaneously beautiful and useful. Designers and craftspeople can use glass to create objects that establish significant and long-lasting relationships with their owners. Though glass is a relatively cheap material, we consider glass objects valuable. They connect us to one another and to periods of our lives. Glass can be a wonderfully emotive material – a material that, in the right form, shows us who we are and how we're feeling. And often glass items can be repurposed. A glass that is no longer used as a glass might instead become a vase. A vase might become a container for something other than flowers. Dieter Rams once said, "Recycling is what must happen when you fail to reuse." Yes, glass can be endlessly recycled. But it can also be endlessly re-used, too. And each time a glass object takes on a new form of value and usefulness, it becomes an even bigger part of our personal histories.
Tom Morris is a design writer and the former design editor at Monocle magazine.
