CONTENTS Translucency - Light made material by Frank Kaltenbach 6 Glass as a building material The material - Types of glass - Properties of glass - The glass facade - Glass panes - Surface Treatments - Multi-layered glass - Insulating glass by Andrea Compagno 10 Structural glass Glass skeleton construction by Joachim Achenbach 26 Structural gluing by WernerSobek, Lucio Biandini 30 Armoured laminated glass by Werner Sobek, Frank Maier 33 GRP-glass composite systems by Jan Knippers, Stefan Peters 36 Plastic- Semi-finished sheet products Manufacture - Materials and properties - Standard semi-finished products - Individual design possibilities - The dream of free form - Everything possible in the future? Frank Kaltenbach 40 Membrane materials in structural engineering Membrane materials - Surface coatings - Requirements and applications - Material properties - Coated fabrics - Sheeting by Karsten Moritz 58 Building with ETFE sheeting Construction principles - Manufacture and processing - Mechanical properties - Building physics properties - Planning - Assembly - Approval for use - Assessment by Karsten Moritz, Rainer Barthel 70 Diaphanous metals Diaphanous metal building envelopes - General points - Metallic materials - Alloys - Surfaces - Diaphanous semi-finished sheet products - Metal fabrics by Stefan Schafer 80 Standards 100 List of manufacturers 102 Glass - Plastics - Membranes - Metal Subject index 108 Picture credits 110