Steel structuresespecially as there was a requirement that the
building be erected very quickly. The glass-clad
metal framework, as a genus of building type,
also performed well in the context of train-
sheds, where generous provision for daylight-
ing and natural ventilation were essential and
where high levels of thermal and acoustic
insulation were not required. The indifferent
weathertightness of the external envelope was
tolerable in the context of a large railway
station where a programme of maintenance
was accepted as normal.
The technical deficiencies of the glass-clad
framework were serious drawbacks in the
context of other types of buildings, however,
and especially of those within which a 'well
tempered environment' was a reasonable
expectation. The buildings in which people
lived, worked, became educated or were ill -
the glass-clad houses, offices, schools and
hospitals of the modernist twentieth century,
in other words - were seriously deficient in
their technical performance. Glass, if used as
the sole covering for a building which is
intended to be occupied by humans, actually
performs rather badly in a technical sense. A
masonry wall, which is pierced with glass
windows for light and ventilation, is a much
better technical solution to the problem of
cladding a frame building.
The early Modernists, however, despite their
declared allegiance to the idea of celebrating
technology, were more interested in aesthetics
than in technical performance. Both the
Rationalists^2 and the Expressionists, were
dealing in metaphor and the symbolic attrac-
tiveness of the glass-clad framework ensured
that mundane, practical considerations were
overridden. The glass-walled building became
one of the cliches of twentieth-century
Modernism - a triumph of ideas and aesthetics
2 In the context of architecture the terms Rational or
Rationalism should never be taken literally. They did
not mean 'that which is logical, sensible and practical'.
The Rationalists produced an architectural vocabulary
which symbolised the idea of being logical, sensible and
practical.Fig. 3.6 The Seagram Building, New York, USA, 1957.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect. This was the arche-
typal glass-clad framework of the late modern period.over that which was practical in building terms
(Fig. 3.6). That triumph was to make a signifi-
cant contribution to the alienation which
subsequently developed between the world of
architecture (architects and their apologist
critics) and the mainstream of society.
It is worth noting that, although the tech-
nical efficacy of using glass cladding may be 55