Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s 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’s 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. Patented 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’ 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’s 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’s oversaturated, Miami Vice aesthetic — 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. “I have a thing for buildings with glass blocks,” she says, explaining how last year, this obsession led her to create @sexyglassblock, an Instagram account cataloguing archival and contemporary examples. “Sometimes I have to ask myself: do I actually like this building? Or does it just have a glass block in it?”Most people said they hated glass blocks, that they reminded them of their grandma’s house. Well, maybe your grandma has better taste than youWhile the page’s posts can amass more than 250,000 likes, initially the feedback was polarised. “Most responses were from people saying they hated glass blocks, that they reminded them of their grandma’s house,” she says. “Well, maybe your grandma has better taste than you.”This 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’s square. When stacked, this style of block creates a plane evoking a sheet of bubble wrap. “The geometric repetition — it’s pure Deco,” Hudson says. “History repeats itself, and we’re now experiencing an Art Deco revival. We’re in the 1920s again, after all.”But the glass block’s 1980s connection is equally compelling for Hudson. “People are afraid of glass blocks because of how cost-effective they are, and so how overused they became,” she says, adding that the material’s relative affordability is an asset with today’s rising construction costs. “Were 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,” she says. “We’re coming out of a period of organic minimalism,” she adds. “That preference is giving way to a desire for something more eventful, expressive and bold.”The 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. “Their grid-like pattern juxtaposes beautifully with the organic forms of my ceramics,” says Kaplan. He opted for Doric glass blocks, which feature wide vertical ribbing that underscores the material’s 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’s 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. “They delineate spaces in a visually open way,” Kaplan says. “The translucency adds a luminous quality to the interiors, filtering natural light while maintaining an element of privacy.”Architecture practice Flack Studio is likewise captivated by the visual qualities of glass blocks. “Thanks to their chunkiness, they reflect light in a super dynamic way,” says founder David Flack. For a recent Melbourne project, Flack constructed exterior walls from glass blocks. “A flat glass panel has a direct relationship with the landscape, whereas the glass block is much more abstract, distorting the view,” he says. “It invites your imagination to fill in the gaps between what you can see and what you want to see.”Recent 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’s not just the material itself that’s evolving, but the way designers are approaching it. In a residential project by Studio Beck on Australia’s Gold Coast, for example, glass blocks form the igloo-like structure of a bathtub. For an apartment in Berlin’s 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: “It’s a very old material that has a futuristic quality. It works as well today as it did 100 years ago.”Find out about our latest stories first — follow @ft_houseandhome on Instagram
