A translucent partition made of glass blocks — hollow glass bricks — laid in mortar like masonry, with steel in the joints and a frame at the perimeter. It carries no load: it divides the space while letting light through, diffused and without a direct view. Robust, washable and damp-resistant, it lights bathrooms, stairs and blind corridors with an unmistakable industrial-retro character.
Technical section of the system, from inside (left) to outside (right).
A translucent partition made of glass blocks — hollow glass bricks — laid in mortar like masonry, with steel in the joints and a frame at the perimeter. It carries no load: it divides the space while letting light through, diffused and without a direct view. Robust, washable and damp-resistant, it lights bathrooms, stairs and blind corridors with an unmistakable industrial-retro character.
A glass-block wall is a translucent partition made of glass blocks — hollow glass bricks — laid in mortar like masonry, with reinforcement in the joints and a frame at the perimeter. It carries no load: it divides the space while letting light through, diffused and without a direct view.
The glass block is the magic: it transmits much of the light but diffuses it, so the wall lights two rooms while keeping their privacy. It is robust, washable and damp-resistant — which is why it is used in bathrooms, stairs and blind corridors — and gives an unmistakable industrial or retro character.
The blocks are laid in mortar with spacers, and steel rods run in the horizontal (and sometimes vertical) joints, stiffening the wall and controlling its cracks. As glass and mortar are rigid, brittle materials, the perimeter is not built in solid: a frame with elastic joints lets the wall and the surrounding structure move without cracking the blocks.
Laying takes care: courses plumb and level, regular joints, a mortar suited to glass, and a final pointing that seals and finishes. Single glass is a thermal bridge and can condense: on external walls, chambered or double blocks are chosen. The maximum size without stiffeners is limited; beyond it, intermediate frames are needed.
A glass-block wall does something a normal partition cannot: it divides the space and lets the light through at the same time. The hollow block is made of two pressed glass shells with an air cavity between them; light enters and is refracted and scattered by the glass and the cavity, so it comes out diffused and spread, not as a clear image. You see brightness, not what is behind it — perfect for borrowing daylight into a bathroom, a stair or a blind corridor while keeping privacy. Because it is glass and mortar — rigid, brittle materials — the wall is not structural and must be free to move: reinforcement in the joints controls its cracks, and an elastic perimeter joint lets the surrounding structure move without shattering the blocks.
The blocks are laid in mortar with spacers that keep the joints regular; in the joints run steel rods — horizontal and, on taller walls, vertical — that stiffen the panel and control its cracking. It is this hidden grid of mortar and steel that turns a stack of brittle blocks into a stable wall.
Glass and mortar are rigid and brittle, so the wall is never built in solid. It sits in a U-frame fixed to the structure, with an elastic joint between the last blocks and the frame: this gap lets the surrounding building move — settle, deflect, expand — without transmitting the load to the panel and cracking the blocks. A sealant finishes and weatherproofs the line.
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