CONTEXT 177 : SEPTEMBER 2023 45 Notes from the chair Flooded with light, but at what cost? I usually try to refer in my column to the main theme of the particular issue of Context. I was struggling to find an interesting angle on glass until I attended the IHBC’s Annual School in Swansea. On the Thursday afternoon study tour of Swansea town centre, led by Moira Lucas, we visited the glass department of Swansea College of Art, which occupies a Victorian building that was formerly a public library. Its entrance and foyer are formed appropriately by a contemporary, dramatically glazed side extension. As well as providing undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses, the college has links with industry and professional bodies. There is also commercial activity in the college’s Architectural Glass Centre which commissions, manufactures and installs decorative glass. An archive of stained and coloured glass completes the set-up. It was inspiring to see the work that was being completed and the many examples of decorative glass, both old and new that were on display. It felt like a sort of arts-and-crafts organisation of the 21st century. While contemporary design was to the fore, the continuance of a craft tradition will go some way to ensuring that there are people with the necessary knowledge and skills to repair and conserve historic glass. Decorative glass is only one small part of the built environment. It is interesting to consider how glass as a material fits within the wider issue of climate change and the moves to net zero. According to the International Energy Agency, the container and flat glass industries emit 60 megatonnes of carbon dioxide a year. In theory, glass is infinitely recyclable, but with high energy use in the process. Recycling rates for bottles and other containers are quite high, but how much glass in the construction sector is re-used and recycled? The sustainability mantra of reduce, re-use and recycle makes one ponder the relative merits of secondary glazing against the use of slender double glazed panes in existing frames. Putting aside the issue of conserving original historic glass, how do the energy arguments stack up?
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=