Re3 Glass,

Telesilla Bristogianni and Faidra Oikonomopoulou are architects, building technology engineers and experts in structural glass at Technical University Delft. They both wrote PhDs on glass as a construction material.

The challenges that occur when building a façade entirely out of glass – such as waste and discarding of imprecisely cast elements – caused Bristogianni and Oikonomopoulou to take their research further. They identified a novel, reversible building system comprising dry‐assembled, interlocking cast components out of waste glass, which they called Re3 Glass (inspired by the mantra ‘Reduce, reuse, recycle’). Starting from the high compressive strength of glass, the project explores the recycling of everyday glass waste into cast structural components for architectural and interior design applications. Experiments at the TU Delft Glass Lab with different geometries, glasses and cooling techniques resulted in a wide range of clear, coloured, translucent, opaque or marbled glass elements. Bristogianni and Oikonomopoulou are working with architecture firms to implement the concept into construction and designs. They are primarily interested in finding ways to recycle household glass, which is generally not suitable for reuse.