Architectural skin is the soul of design: curved glass curtain wall

Views:35 Author:Site Editor Publish Time:2026-07-20 16:03:10 Orgin:Site

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Glass, as a material for building curtain walls, occupies an irreplaceable and important position in modern architecture. It endows buildings with a transparent and lightweight visual effect, while breaking the traditional sense of enclosure of walls, making the appearance of buildings more modern and fashionable, and becoming a symbol of urban landmarks and architectural art.

Traditional glass curtain walls have long been commonplace, but curved glass curtain walls form smooth building facades by fitting curved surfaces with curved or flat glass, breaking traditional building edges and giving buildings a sense of fluidity and art, becoming a popular trend in building exterior design.

Brisbane Glass House Theatre

Architects:Blight Rayner+Snohetta

 Architectural exterior and street view©Christopher FrederickJones

The new glass house theater located in the Queensland Performing Arts Centre on the south bank has a stunning appearance, with a dynamic and undulating glass curtain wall as its iconic design, aiming to redefine the way large cultural buildings blend and coexist with the city.

The venue was jointly designed by Blight Rayner and Snohetta. In order to achieve the planned building area within the limited space on top of the existing theater green space, the building is cantilevered outward by about six meters at two street facing facades. The design team created an extremely transparent boundary structure in the overhanging area to weaken the visual pressure of the building.

A dynamic and transparent architectural facade©Christopher FrederickJones

hrough the transparent glass curtain wall, the main body of the theater complements the original architectural style, and the undulating and dynamic glass curtain wall endows the lobby with a highly dynamic visual characteristic. The curtain wall has undergone precise thermal performance optimization and adopts a four layer composite structure with an air insulation layer reserved in the interlayer. The glass panel in the area exposed to direct sunlight is embedded with black ceramic decorative strips, which also serve as sunshade louvers to block strong light, optimize building energy efficiency, and effectively reduce glare interference.

The transparent and lightweight lobby space creates a strong contrast with the interior of the theater, and the audience hall resembles a quiet enclosed space. The dark gray iron wood walls are paired with rainforest green carpets, creating a rich atmosphere. The original design required only one floor of seating and side private rooms. To bring the audience and actors closer together and enhance immersive interaction, the design maximizes the proximity of the front of the building to the stage, and adds a row of private rooms to enrich the spatial hierarchy and balance visual proportions.

Mainland style theater seating layout©Christopher Frederick Jones

The design team draws inspiration from the texture and rhythm of string instruments, combining professional craftsmanship precision with immersive spatial atmosphere; The layered wooden decorative ribbons showcase the regional characteristics of Queensland. Now, the Glass House Theater is officially put into operation, operating together with the other four theaters of QPAC, and is expected to attract an additional 300000 visitors annually.

Shamali Dan Department Store Restoration and Renovation

SANAA + LAGNEAU+ FBAA + SRA

Architectural exterior and street view©Simon Garcia

Shamali Dan Department Store was once a large and well-established department store in Paris, located in the heart of the French capital and consisting of four buildings. The shopping mall is located between the Louvre Museum and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, with a complex of buildings that combine Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles. It was closed in 2005 due to safety hazards. Comprehensively renovate and upgrade the entire building complex.

This renovation completely breaks the rigid spatial layout, reconstructs the flow system, and maximizes the introduction of natural lighting. The new architectural style of Shamali Dan Department Store combines innovative design with historical preservation, while highly focusing on the concept of ecological sustainability.

Building facade© Simon Garcia

The most eye-catching new design on the entire site is the all-new facade crafted by SANAA. This highly visually contrasting building facade creates a dialogue between indoor and outdoor spaces, weakening the sense of volume oppression in the rear building.

The undulating and dynamic glass curtain wall becomes one of the main entrances of the building, connecting Rivoli Street with the upgraded commercial area, and linking the low rise spaces of three out of the four buildings in the entire complex. The undulating rhythm of the glass curtain wall echoes the window texture of the surrounding Osyan style buildings, blending the building with the urban texture and weakening the heavy building boundaries.

Building Facade and Interior Space©Jared Chulski

The brand new wave shaped glass curtain wall actually continues the pioneering concept and spirit of exploring glass materials of the first generation architects Franz Jourdan and Henri Sovage. Kazushi Mejima and Liwei Nishizawa defined this intervention as a gentle dialogue with the grand architectural scale and the rugged boundaries of Rivoli Street. The double-layer skin curtain wall can reflect the decorative details of surrounding buildings, creating a dynamic and undulating visual effect that guides the public into the neighborhood and explores urban space.

Shinhan Bank EX: PACE Store

Atelier KI JUN KIM + Studio in Loco

Architectural exterior and street view©CJoonhwan Yoon

The original building of Shinhan Bank EX: PACE store was completed in 1992 and has been operating as Shinhan Bank Myeongdong Station branch for nearly 30 years. To meet the spatial requirements of the new banking business system and supporting facilities, the project has launched a comprehensive renovation and expansion project.

The design concept of hanging curtains and curtains has always had a special meaning: to showcase style and give a sense of ceremony to the space through wrapping and covering, while arousing people's curiosity and imagination about the area and scenery behind the curtains. The soft curved glass captures the changing light and shadow, creating a dynamic atmosphere in the space with the flow of light, giving the building a unique recognition.

Transparent wavy facade design©Joonhwan Yoon

The main entrance of the street corner of the building adopts a concave glass curtain wall and mirror suspended ceiling design, combined with landscape green plants and leisure seats, to create a "city living room" for pedestrians to stop and rest at any time. Another entrance is embedded with two sets of glass volumes; relying on the continuous vertical frame of the corner, the upper curved facade, and the modular cutting shape, these two sets of glass blocks form an independent and complete visual volume.

The project abandons dynamic variable facades and instead captures the beauty of fabric fluttering moments, creating a "restrained complexity": by repeatedly assembling multiple curved modules, it outlines rich and delicate architectural textures; what viewers remember is no longer rigid shapes, but gentle metaphors and symbols.

Building Facade and Interior Space©Joonhwan Yoon

When designing the undulating fa ç ade of Static Waves, the team drew inspiration from the form of fabric curtains and cotton fabrics swaying gently in the wind, replicating the soft and warm texture of the fabric. When walking along the street, the exterior presents a constantly changing visual effect, with circular dots attached to the glass surface and gradually changing ceramic glaze points. The diameter of the glaze points naturally transitions with the interface. The change in elevation hierarchy can be seen from the bottom looking up at the glass module, revealing a unique cross-sectional shape that cannot be presented from the elevation perspective.