GlassAge – A Transparent View of Ancient Innovation

About the FRIAS Project Group

The history of humankind has always been closely linked to materials. Since the early evolution of material process technology, the ages of human history have been intimately connected with the names of materials. In the envisaged project, we will investigate the historic and cultural context of one of humankind’s earliest high performance materials the importance of which has only grown with time: glass. Since the early developments in glass shaping, the history of this material has been closely linked to the cultural context. Interestingly, many of the artefacts of glass that survive from premodern contexts today still surpass the dominating methods of glass processing in the 21st century, and many of the effects found in historic specimens have a surprising actuality. As an example, optical metamaterials have been documented over a span of two millennia with current technology unable to replicate the craftsmanship required to make these object. GlassAge will explore the cultural and historic context of glass and the breakthrough developments which have, for various reasons, been largely ignored by modern developments in the material.

Just as bionics takes nature as a model for material innovations, our project asks how the know-how of past cultures can inspire modern material developments. We envision to provide inspiration for modern material systems which reach beyond the mere technological assessment, building on the rich history of material and material processing in its cultural context thus enabling a holistic retro- as well as a prospective vision for material systems in the 21st century.

Period of Funding: October 2024 – September 2025