Earlier this year Dreamwalls Colored Glass issued a press release on how designers are using chromotherapy principles in their designs. Mario Morales of Artesanos Design Group stated that chromotherapy proposes that colors have psychological temperatures, which bring about emotional reactions and responses … allowing the walls in the overall design of a space to not only add depth to a project, but also complement, connect and integrate the décor of the space itself into an all-inclusive design.

Likewise, a number of studies have been done about how colors can affect our emotions and well-being. Earlier this year I had the opportunity to interview John Blazy (CLICK HERE to read more in our online digital edition) who told me that architects often specify his color-changing Dichrolam product for use in children’s hospitals. “Architects specifically know that children love color-children love my product way more than adults,” Blazy said.

And, in its predictions for the most popular color choices for 2009 (2010 has not yet been announced) the Color Marketing Group listed its top choices as those influenced by both concern for the economy and optimism about the future.

“We’re finding comfort in colors that are familiar, and yet, at the same time, we’re embracing colors that make us happy — especially as accents,” says executive director, Jaime Stephens. “Also, the demand for colors and products that reflect an environmentally ‘greener’ world goes way beyond a trend. It’s now ‘a given.’ ”

And what were the group’s top picks? Purple, blue, browns and grays, yellow, bright accents from India, China, and Turkey (i.e., oranges, turquoises and teals, reds, and yellows), white and mauve (yes, mauve).

OK. So that was just a few thoughts from a few different sources about working with color. Now, I need to hear from you: why do you use color and does it really have “mood-altering effects”? Does it give your designs that extra something and what do you think of combining color with glass?

More than decorative glass, the first thing I noticed was just the massive use of glass itself. One of the most popular applications, from what I could tell, is the use of glass in handrails and balustrades on condo and apartment balconies. Just walking down a street and looking up you’d see them all around, building after building. As someone explained to me, Australians love sitting outside, and the glass can provide a nearly unobstructed view of the surroundings (in this particular case, it was a beach view).

Considering the definition that the Glass Association of North America has given decorative glass (“glass that is designed to produce distinct artistic, textural, dimensional and tactile elements that extend the physical, functional, and visual properties beyond traditional flat glass”) you could say that an all glass balustrade might just add a bit of flare to an otherwise dull porch.

Another way to add flare might be with a glass canopy or elevator. Check out this picture on the left. I snapped it after I arrived in the Sydney harbor via ferry (just to provide a bit of geography, from where I stood to take this shot the famous opera house was ahead of me to the left).

And as far as other decorative products, such as cast and kiln-formed glass? I was told that the excitement there has come and gone. Now companies are exploring other decorative possibilities (such as printing onto glass; more on that in a future blog).

But I did find a bit of cast glass in a spot where you might not necessarily expect to find it. Walking down the street I passed a bus stop that was constructed almost entirely of cast glass. So that got me thinking about all of the different places where decorative glass can be used. What are some of the most unusual places for decorative glass products? Share your comments in the space below. Got a picture? Email it to me at erogers@glass.com.

I will be off to Australia. Yes, the opera house and the zoo in Sydney are definite musts, but like I said, the glass is also important. So, to prepare myself, I asked around to try and learn more about what I can expect to find in terms of glazing.

My fellow blogger Stew Langer with Uroglass told me I will find decorative glass just about everywhere.

“It’s not unusual to drive through neighborhoods where every house is adorned with one or more stained glass windows (“leadlights” in OZ). There are commercial districts where every storefront has some decorative glazing or glass sign. When you visit a venue that is perfect for glass (e.g. Star City Casino, in Sydney) then LOOKOUT. Floors, ceilings, escalator sidings, signs (unbelievable stuff), miles of balustrade, bar backs, lighting, more, more, more, more. Talk about feeling like a kid in a candy store! This is EYE CANDY at its best, and there’s so much to take in. It’s unforgettable if you’re in the glass biz.”

Sounds like I’ve got a lot to take in, which made me wonder: what is that has made Australia embrace decorative glass more than the United States?

Alexsandra Guinan is a principal with GlassKote USA, a commercial joint venture with GlassKote Australia P/L. She told me that Australians are not afraid to travel the world, look at what others are doing and then come back and put their own spin on a design.

“They are not scared to incorporate new materials. Decorative glass and glass period was an accepted material much earlier in Australia than other parts of the world … Australia has had the tenacity to create new designs with a sense of ‘lets try something really new’ being the overriding principal,” she says.

OK, so now it’s your turn. If you’ve traveled to Australia I want to hear your take on the architectural and decorative glass trends there. If there are places I simply must see, post your comments here and let me know. (I’ll take any restaurant recommendations, too.)

In addition to the “Longfellows,” the exhibition also includes Fräbel’s “Cavorting Clowns” frolicking on an 8-foot tall spiral fountain, as well the “Large Cube with Imploding Glass Spheres,” an 8-foot by 8-foot structure with an illuminated center, featured outside the Tropical Forest Conservatory.

If you happen to find yourself in the Pittsburgh area, Life in the Gardens. Fräbel Glass at Phipps runs through January 20, 2010.

CLICK HERE for more info on the conservatory.

I had such an encounter a couple of weeks ago. I was walking through the sculpture garden at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and decided to stroll through the Cowles Conservatory. I was wandering through, taking in the beauty of all the plants and flowers when suddenly there was a giant glass fish standing before me (yes, a fish).

I stood there a moment, taken aback a bit … is that really a giant glass fish? I pondered this to myself and then said out load, “I do believe that’s glass.” A few steps closer and I saw that indeed it was.

Created by world-renowned architect and artist Frank Gehry, the title of the sculpture was simple “Standing Glass Fish.” Constructed of glass, wood, steel, silicone, plexiglass and rubber, the sculpture, created in 1986, stands 22-feet tall and is suspended on invisible supports over a rectangular lily pond and surrounded by palm trees.

Gehry’s comment about the sculpture reads: “In Toronto, when I was very young, my grandmother and I used to go to Kensington, a Jewish market, on Thursday morning. She would buy a carp for gefilte fish. She’d put it in the bathtub, fill the bathtub with water, and this big black carp–two or three feet long–would swim around in the bathtub and I would play with it. I would stand up there and watch it turn and twist . . . and then she’d kill it and make gefilte fish and that was always sad and awful and ugly.”–Frank Gehry

You can also read more about the sculpture here.

Decorative glass, art glass, sculptural glass – if you’ve got a story to share about an interesting example you’ve seen or worked on please share it.

But it’s funny how some things tend to work out. One of the first articles that I wrote while working for USGlass was titled Going Against the Grain and was about how architects and designers were working with glass in new and innovative ways (this was written back in 2000).

I had interviewed glass artist Gordon Huether who said, “As more and more people become aware of it [glass design] they, too, will use it and more possibilities will be available.”

If you can look back on what was happening with decorative glass nine years ago and compare it to all that’s happening now, you can really see how the market has evolved.

During the AIA Show I had the opportunity to interview Gordon again, this time for our video newscast  (See interviews with other decorative companies here). I like how Gordon described the emergence of so many new technologies as “the perfect storm” for artists working in glass.

How exciting to think about decorative possibilities have evolved. I look forward to what the next 10 years have in store.

Goldray Industries provided colorful spandrel glass for the Alberta Children

probably isn’t the first thing to come to mind. Instead, you are more likely to envision room dividers and walls, even flooring and staircases; maybe a decorative sculpture or art piece. But with all the possibilities on the market, using decorative glass in a building façade, just like in a hotel lobby, can also create a statement.

Remember how I wrote about the decorative features of the Shanghai Tower last week? The building has a decorative quality just by the nature of the way the glass was designed for the structure. But even without intricate designs and construction details, you can still use glass in a more traditional application and make an impact.

OK, so the likelihood that a candy-apple red skyscraper will join Chicago’s or New York’s skyline any time soon is slim. However, it might not be surprising to walk down one of those busy streets and find colorful glass being used to welcome people into the building; perhaps instead of brick or stone you see that glass is the surrounding feature. After all, it would make a statement and it would grab your attention.

Aside from color, imagery can also be applied to glass for use in exterior applications. Technologies are out there that will allow you to print anything and everything onto glass (remember the Barbie store in Shanghai?). In addition to printing on the glass there are also technologies that allow you to print directly onto an interlayer material for use in laminated glass, so in addition to the aesthetics of the artwork, you also get all of the benefits of working with a laminated safety glass.

While some of these printing trends may still be in their infancy, I expect to see the trend toward digital printing grow more and more in North America. All it takes is a few people willing to push the limits a little here and there.

While it may seem as though interior applications, rather than exterior, are the ones that take advantage of all that decorative glass can offer, it’s not to say that a building façade can’t also be decorative. As just an example, printing technologies are now available that can ink-jet or digitally print amazingly detailed graphics right onto glass; the same can be done to interlayer materials when the job calls for laminated glass.

Likewise, the design of the building itself can make for a relatively decorative façade. Consider the 632-meter Shanghai Tower, designed by Gensler, that is currently being built in China.

A Gensler press release describes the tower as “nine cylindrical buildings stacked one atop another. The inner layer of the double-skin façade encloses the stacked buildings, while a triangular exterior layer creates the second skin, or building envelope, which gently rotates as it rises. The spaces between the two façade layers create nine atrium sky gardens.”

Maybe it’s just me, but words such as “cylindrical,” “triangular” and “gently rotates” have somewhat of a decorative flare.

To create the look of the building, Gensler used “warped” glass panels, which had only a slight curve or bend, and aligned them so that the building appears to wrap all the way to the top.

And on another note, decorative exteriors can also make for “green applications. The Shanghai Tower, for instance, is an example of sustainable design. Among a list of sustainable qualities, the tower’s circular inner glass skin, for example, uses 14 percent less glass than a square building of the same area, and minimizes energy consumption. Also, the double-skin façade’s vertical atria creates thermal buffer zones.

Gensler says owners of the Shanghai Tower plan to register for a high level of building certification from the China Green Building Committee and the U.S. Green Building Council.

CLICK HERE to read more about Shanghai Tower and to view Gensler’s conceptual animation (on page 7) of the project.

Light Fixture at the Palms

The Rojo Lounge

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Like with any new business, there’s got to be a plan in place. How are you going to get your new product into the hands of your target customers? What do you need to know about this business? I asked Scott Surma from DecoTherm what advice he would give a company thinking about venturing into the decorative market. He shared some key points to think about.

For starters, the route you follow to get the product to market. You must understand who the customers/stake holders are and how they can best be reached.

Next, is strategic fit. “Diversifying just for the ‘sake of diversifying’ is dangerous and can quickly make the entire business sick if not properly planned and rolled-out,” Scott told me.

Next up, is it a tactical fit? In other words, do you have the customer service capabilities for the new business? “Decorative glass requires more hand-holding, custom sampling, etc. compared to standard/commodity products,” Scott said.

And don’t forget the importance of the right production environment and mindset. “Decorative glass is more of a ‘job shop’ mindset rather than a high-volume commodity production line operation,” Scott added.

Don’t get me wrong. Decorative glass products are exciting … they are vibrant, colorful and energetic. I can see why companies would want to get involved. But like with anything else, it’s good to make sure you understand exactly what you’re getting into. I’m sure we’ve all found some hobby or two we just knew we’d love-be it rollerblading, snowboarding or tap dancing. We go out and spend tons of money on equipment and supplies and then we end up using the rollerblades, snowboard or tap shoes once or twice. We lose interest, realize maybe it really wasn’t what we wanted to do, or just get too busy with everything else. And then what? The rollerblades, snowboard and tap shoes are all gathering dust in the garage.

OK, maybe that comparison is not to the same extreme as starting up a decorative business, but you get my drift. What do you think of all this? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the decorative glass business and where you see it going.

And you know, I’m actually starting to feel a bit inspired … and it’s snowing … wonder if that old snowboard is still out in the garage …