Glass Windows of the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision

Neutelings Riedijk Architects (NRA) represent the generation of Dutch Architects that are finally beginning to usurp the dominance of Rem Koolhaas. NRA recently completed Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. The building was conceived as a perfect cube, half of which is buried beneath the ground.

A cultural focus for the city of Hilversum, it houses broadcasting archives, offices and a museum. The exterior is a modernstained glass, conceived in collaboration with artist Jaap Drupsteen. Each panel of the cast glass skin is imprinted with famous images from Dutch Television. Interestingly, each image is only discernible from a certain angle, creating a merged and colourful effect.

The interior of the building is in textural contrast, as it gives way to the exhibits. However, the stained glass casts a colourful glow where it permeates. One wonders if the effect is similar to that of the stained glass that we are more used to — that of the mediaeval church.

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World's Largest US stained glass Flag

It had to be somewhere--the world's largest stained-glass flag--so it's here on the south wall of the Dole Institute of Politics on the west campus of the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

It's 40 feet high, it has 960 pieces and, it weighs one ton (not that it's likely to be moved anytime soon) and it costs $200,000. Flanking the flag are steel columns recovered from the World Trade Center.

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World Map Stained Glass Dome (Mapparium Building - Boston, MA)

Located in the Christian Science Center in Boston, The Mapparium is a spherical stained glass room that depicts as a map of the world with political borders from 1935.

The hard spherical surface of the globe reflects sound and produces striking acoustical effects. It forms a remarkable whispering gallery so that visitors standing at corresponding locations near opposite ends the bridge can speak to each other and be heard as if they were standing next to each other.

The Mapparium was designed to allow the countries of the world to be viewed in accurate geographical relationship to each other. It is usually assumed that a globe solves this problem; but since it is viewed from the outside, different parts of the globe are at different distances from the eye and are thus distorted by perspective. 

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