why is it that these modern buildings are made of glass throughout everywhere? is glass very rigid and safe to use?

• ID# 176.2 (reply to #176.1) - 18 September 2000
  1) Ask the architects, I'd say. I guess it's the same reason why in the early 1980s the masonry cladding made a swift comeback, the stylistic change of climate. The pre-war German ideals of astylar glass boxes that revealed their structural frame (as well as the interiors) were the basis for the International style. That idea was used until it ran out of steam and the contextual (urban environment-conscious) and historic Postmodernism took over in many design bureaux. It seems that the emerging neo-Modernism (my term) combines these two as a new, deconstructivist ideal. Any pickings for the next style?
  2) Depends on the size of the pane, but I wouldn't call it especially rigid, except as a multi-layered laminated and hardened glass. The wind etc. loads that cause swaying in a skyscraper are anyway countered by the slabs, service core and structural perimeter colonnade (if present). ED