During the day time, reflective glass when seen from below can make a building seem to dissolve and form part of the skyscape. In other conditions, such buildings can look monolithic. A great index site showing the different companies doing glass Architecture. Back to the top Plastics Plastics is not just the newest of the primary construction materials available to the building designer today, it is also the most challenging. Even metal, glass and concrete are produced from natural materials and their basic principles have been understood from ancient times.
Plastic has no such pedigree.
There is no deep wealth of experience in its use, nor is it yet associated with any clear cultural meaning. It is unique in being an entirely manmade material, a product essentially of the 20th century. Plastics such as acrylic can be simply formed into sheets by heating the raw material with a catalyst to form a viscous liquid. When this is poured between two polished surfaces, such as glass, and allowed to cool, it will harden to a sheet of even thickness with a smooth, flat surface. Transparent acrylic sheets made in this way are widely used as an alternative to glass.