How insulated glass changed architecture

No pane, no gain.

Today, it’s easy to take big glass windows and doors for granted, whether they show up in commercial buildings or in our homes. But this use of glass is, at its core, a technological breakthrough that changed how we live and how our buildings work.

As Thomas Leslie explains, insulated glass shaped the look of the 20th century. Big but poorly insulated glass windows went out of fashion as electricity allowed for the production of artificial light. Builders needed a new way to install windows that let in natural light, but also controlled heat.

Insulated glass was that solution. As the above video shows, the invention of a branded glass, Thermopane, and its immediate competitors, led to the landscape we recognize today.

Further Reading:

Flickr groups can be a great tool for finding old ads. The “Vintage Advertising” group includes some great examples of old Thermopane ads:
You can also find ads for Twindow:

The video in this film, American Look, is a 1958 look at the cutting edge of design. It’s still a gorgeous film and includes some great predictions (as well as some interesting incorrect ones).

[Vox]

Thanks for watching! Other Thermopane experiments happened before it was adopted for residential use — Thermopane maker, Libbey-Owens-Ford made canopies for P-47 fighter planes in 1943 and 1944. -Phil

[TheRealGuywithoutaMustache]

Bob is an absolute legend, truly deserving of the protagonist role.

[Thebreakdownshow]

Bob really really wanted to sit outside and watch his family.

[murilot.c]

This is even more interesting when you consider that this change happened duing the Cold War, and created a really huge difference between the American and Soviet Architecture

[AlwaresHUN]

I live in a 120 year old apartment (in Budapest) and its have the samewhat original windows and these are huge. But the difference is that in every place I have two windows in front of each other, and its have 10 cm of air between them. Its insulates pretty well, but its not practical for houses with thinner walls (mine have 40 cm thick walls to the outside).

[adamigo]

Phil always picks the most fascinating topics, we often wonder about, but don't check!

[jackjensen]

Loved the inclusions of the front pages in these newspapers, reminding us that this glass thing was never front page news, and reminding Bob that what he saw in Belgium lurks in the heart of every evil man.

[jellysecret]

im from finland, insulated glass is a must here!! especially for that scandinavian, flooded with natural light kind of vibe. most houses also double doors here, sometimes with a mudroom inbetween them. we take our insulation seriously!

[Scoopski_Potato]

Please make more content like this. I am now knowledgeable of glass and it’s function in Bob’s life.

[Sacto]

But instulated glass windows was still relatively unknown to American homeowners until the late 1970's, when the effects of two energy crises forced state regulators to require insulated glass windows in many new homes. I had my home's windows replaced with insulated windows in 2010 and the result in lower electric and gas bills was huge.

[greegeo]

Gotta say I loved the Celsius temperature being shown there. Otherwise I'd have just kept watching the video and ignoring that piece of information. Please, keep doing this, Vox

[DevSarman]

As an architecture student graduate, this relates a lot

[williamhild]

"Bob" is Olan Soule. He was an actor in a number of different TV shows. For me, most notably in several episodes of Dragnet.

[bydavidecantelmo]

Now please show this video to the UK where, even in rich areas like Kensington, Hampstead, etc… (and even though it’s an historically humid/wet country) you can easily find most of the apartments with one-layered-sliding windows which have the subsequent effect of producing terrible isolation from the cold in winter (you can literally feel the breeze of the wind passing through and shaking the blinds) and from the heat in summer (which makes sun-exposed rooms practically unusable).

And how funny that here in the UK the majority of people just go on with this, paying a shitloads of money for winter heating (which gets dispersed easily as the windows do no isolate properly) and which creates a vicious cycle of higher bills and less comfort. Not very environmentally friendly…

[janelarson]

I'd love to see more of these videos about architectural invention!

[BubbleEngineering]

"Some quip about Bob to get more attention."

It would have been great to have some more details on the Solar Heat Gain of these modern units and how this can be tuned for different climates. Also, there are a lot of different gases being used between the layers other than dry air; Argon, Krypton, Xenon. There are even DGUs with vacuum (no gass) that offer the best insulation.

So much technical depth to explore here beyond just the architectural impacts.

For anyone interested, my family has been working with Pittsburgh Plate Glass for over 100 years. And with window glass for 50 years more!

[victoriac]

Architecture is amazing it’s one of the best ways to visualize history imo-by walking into a space that was created back then you can really get a sense of those who once occupied it and the perspectives they had. From Ancient Rome to bob’s living room! Great video keep the archi content coming!

[Game_Hero]

The bob running joke was the best part of the video, keep having jokes like this please!

[forthrightgambitia]

In the UK it is known as double glazing and it was a late development and seen as something of a luxury until the 80s and especially 90s when it was something fashionable, although there was an undercurrent of older people claiming it made people 'soft'. As a kid in the 90s hearing adults complain about double glazing salesman who were cold calling to try to sell it as an improvement to the houses that people owned was a very common experience.

[omosunabraham]

The Bob joke was so well done. Nice one, Vox