Architecture for glass: the undeferred architecture of emerging technology

The seamless integration of emerging technologies in architecture negates their architectural expression. As long as emerging technologies in material processing and fabrication continue to be relegated to the lowly status of construction tools their impact on architecture will be deferred. Architecture can only express issues that are considered as design factors. In order to rein in the current trend of geometry driven design characterized by its lack of construction logics, emerging technologies in material processing and fabrication must supplant pure form among architectural design considerations. When these technologies are core drivers of design they have the potential to engender novel architectural expression and, in doing so, their potential effects become undeferred. The Barcelona Pavilion exemplified the undeferring of emerging early 20th century material and technological potential. Current emerging technologies in glass processing and fabrication will be undeferred in a reimagining of that project: The Glassroom Pavilion.