TREASURE HUNTING : Evolution of the Glass House

GLASS BLOCK was first patented in Germany in 1907. In 1914, architect Bruno Taut, a member of Germany’s Deutsche Werkbund , a group of architects and craftsmen concerned with modern industrial design, used glass blocks in a spectacular all-glass exposition pavilion for a Cologne fair.

In 1919, Walter Gropius, architect of the world’s first glass-sheathed building, recruited Europe’s brightest talents--among them Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Marcel Breuer and Mies van der Rohe--to a new Werkbund , his Bauhaus school. Working with glass blocks and other new materials, they changed the look of architecture (and virtually everything from skyscrapers to type), inspiring Le Corbusier’s epochal all-glass apartment house in Geneva, Van der Rohe’s airy skyscrapers in New York and glass-block walls throughout the world.

Once considered old-fashioned, glass blocks have become stylish again. They are clean, versatile, durable, waterproof, fire-resistant, energy-efficient and almost maintenance-free. They “open up” confined spaces, gloomy corners, dead walls and windowless rooms to create dramatic effects. They can increase or lessen solar heat; admit, diffuse and direct light through floors, ceilings, windows and exterior and interior walls; and they can create the feeling of a greenhouse environment by allowing views of the outdoors.

Glass-block manufacturing in the United States all but died in the ‘40s. PC (Pittsburgh Corning) is the sole remaining U.S. producer and makes blocks in many styles: thick or thin, clear, rippled, crosshatched, square and oblong, plus blocks with polyhedron corners. Bronze and gray tones are solar-reflective. Solid blocks, incidentally, are bulletproof.

Other glass-block makers such as Weck of Bonn create blocks with vents, floral and ribbed patterns, frosted and iridescent finishes, custom tones and bright injected colors. There are also tiny Japanese blocks, blocks with curved corners (joined to create, for example, a tubular fountain), and round or square glass sidewalk pavers. Clear glue--rather than white caulking--gives a seamless look.

German-made blocks are available in 32 patterns, including swirls and sunbursts. Smoke and bronze tones are baked in rather than applied on the surface. There are also interlocking glass roof-shingles, and blocks that swivel 180 degrees for ventilation.

California Glass Block Limited in Carson and the Angelus Block Co. in Sun Valley, Orange, Gardena and Fontana stock Pittsburgh Corning glass blocks. Both PC and imported glass block are available at Glass Blocks Unlimited in Costa Mesa. The Glass Block Co. in Los Angeles carries German blocks. Downtown Salvage in Los Angeles stocks used glass blocks.