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Through the Healing Glass: Shaping the Modern Body through Glass Architecture, 1925-35
Contributor(s): Sadar, John Stanislav (Author)
ISBN: 1138837806     ISBN-13: 9781138837805
Publisher: Routledge
OUR PRICE:   $190.00  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: February 2016
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Architecture | History - General
- Architecture | Criticism
Dewey: 720.103
LCCN: 2015035513
Series: Routledge Research in Architecture
Physical Information: 0.8" H x 6.2" W x 9.2" (1.25 lbs) 248 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

In the mid-1920s a physiologist, a glass chemist, and a zoo embarked on a project which promised to turn buildings into medical instruments. The advanced chemistry of "Vita" Glass mobilised theories of light and medicine, health practices and glassmaking technology to compress an entire epoch's hopes for a healthy life into a glass sheet - yet it did so invisibly.

To communicate its advantage, Pilkington Bros. spared no expense as they launched the most costly and sophisticated marketing campaign in their history. Engineering need for "Vita" Glass employed leading-edge market research, evocative photography and vanguard techniques of advertising psychology, accompanied by the claim: "Let in the Health Rays of Daylight Permanently through "Vita" Glass Windows."

This is the story of how, despite the best efforts of two glass companies, the leading marketing firm of the day, and the opinions of leading medical minds, "Vita" Glass failed. However, it epitomised an age of lightness and airiness, sleeping porches, flat roofs and ribbon windows. Moreover, through its remarkable print advertising, it strove to shape the ideal relationship between our buildings and our bodies.