The origin and development of glass curtain wall

Architecture is an effective combination of cultural and practical needs that require different building materials to be combined in some form. In the first half of the 20th century, glass in its highest level of development stage shows the importance of its existence —— a large number of and widely used in the field of architectural engineering, gave birth to the generation of glass curtain wall. The production and development of glass curtain wall is the product of adapting to the practical needs of human beings, which drives the progress of building technology and leads to the leap development of building materials. Before explaining the origin and development of glass curtain wall, the concept of building curtain wall and glass curtain wall should be clarified. According to the definition of building curtain wall (GB/T21086-2007), Building curtain wall is composed of panel and supporting structure system, which can have a certain displacement capacity relative to the main structure or itself has a certain deformation capacity, and does not bear the role of the main structure. Glass curtain wall for the curtain wall panel material is glass building curtain wall.

The development of glass curtain wall is produced with the continuous development and progress of building engineering technology, the most important reason is the development of high-rise building technology and people’s pursuit of a better life. The continuous progress of glass manufacturing technology promoted the development of architectural glass and formed several important periods of development, which were represented by the great progress of glass manufacturing technology and the appearance of great curtain wall building.
The development path and track of glass curtain wall are as follows: the window of residential building in the early period of human activities, the period of Gothic church building and its subsequent period, plant garden, greenhouse and commercial corridor, the enlightenment application of industrial buildings, and the popularization of large area of office and office building. The development of point-supported modern curtain wall comes into being with the continuous improvement of glass production and processing technology and the development and progress of building glass and glass structure. Its development path and track are: full glass window, floor glass rib, full glass curtain wall, point supported glass curtain wall, cable structure curtain wall and other new point supported glass curtain wall forms. Glass curtain wall originated in the United States, point supported glass curtain wall originated in Europe. In a word, glass curtain wall has several development stages.