Glass

This page contains a personal conclution about the use of Glass in constructions in Caracas.

The use of Glass in buildings in our city must be cautious and not use in excess because of it's physical properties. Glass buildings as we see them of countries of cold climates do not adapt well to tropical locations.

Glass stores all the heat it receives on the day to irradiate it on nights, so in template climates such as USA or Germany makes a good choice talking in terms of heating and cooling, and makes the building energy efficient. In other cases, such as in our city, with a strong tropical sun and high temperatures, cooling these buildings is not a cheap or easy task. For example, the Black Cube (Cubo Negro) in Chuao inverts heavy loads of energy in internal cooling. Other example is "Parque Cristal" in front of the Parque del Este, where everyday sun radiation burns all plants of the natural park.

Caracas needs buildings adapted to it's organization and climate. Different architects trying to copy or imitate styles that worked good in another countries realized that glass buildings are not a very good idea in tropical surroundings because of its excesive enerrgy consume and other consequences.