Architecture, Environment and the Search for Transparency: Glazing from Haussmann to La Défense

Résumé 0

Since the 19th century, the size of glazing in Western architecture has increased steadily for the benefit of brighter interiors, promoted by a vanguard of architects eager to use the latest innovations in the industry. In Europe, this industry has regularly enhanced its production processes to increase yields and keep pace with economic and population growth, while the modern project of the 20th century has made transparency an essential component of its promise to improve the comfort, hygiene and openness of buildings. The historiography of architecture has devoted numerous publications to the political, symbolic and aesthetic dimensions of transparency, but has overlooked its materiality and inextricable entanglement with the socio-metabolic trajectory of industrial societies. In this paper, I study the environmental history of architectural glass since the beginning of the 19th century in France. I focus on the evolution of the size and design of the glazing units commonly used in buildings, as well as on the material and energy footprint resulting from their manufacturing. I aim to provide a long-term perspective on the interaction between architecture and the environment through a quantitative analysis of the exploitation of natural resources by the glass industry.I draw on the archives of Saint-Gobain to assess the metabolic trajectory of glazing. The extraction of raw materials and the use of fossil fuels are a precondition for the design of glass architecture, which I examine through its main types, from Haussmann to the fully glazed office buildings. I argue that, although the growing efficiency of the production processes has led to a reduction in the embodied energy of a square metre of glazing, the spread of ever larger windows and the growth of the building stock has led to a dramatic increase in the environmental impact resulting from the use of glass in architecture.