How big can glass get?

The world is full of glass. It's a material used for everything from champagne flutes to smartphone screens, from glass houses to glass bridges.

Nothing new there, of course. The glass industry is an ancient one. But over the centuries, advances in glass manufacturing have made astonishing feats of engineering possible.

This is nowhere more clearly seen (pun intended) than in the world of structural glazing. Sure, glass doors and glass structures have been around for a while – but the scale and scope of these installations continue to grow.

Take a walk through the centre of any major city, and you'll see what we mean. Glass skyscrapers touch the sky while office buildings, galleries and other buildings spread out horizontally.

These days, glass projects can be big. And we're not just talking about structures built from lots of overlapping or joining pieces of glass. We're also talking about continuous pieces of glass that quite simply boggle the mind.

In this article, we're celebrating the glass giants of the world – five record-breaking products that show just what glass can do. Who knows what record will be broken next?

1. The world's tallest stained glass window

Dubai is a place where records are broken. Among other achievements, it's home to the world's tallest building (the Burj Kalifa), its largest shopping centre and its tallest observation wheel.

What's less known is that Dubai used to be home to the tallest stained glass window, too – a 135-feet-high, 29½-feet-wide backlit glass mural in the atrium of the Ramada Hotel. There, it dazzled visitors until the hotel was demolished in 2017.

Designed by John Lawson, the Chief Artist at British firm Goddard and Gibbs, the stained glass window "depicts a floral pattern with birds unobtrusively in the background". The glass was set with "rare granites, quartz and crushed coloured stones".

The hotel is gone, but the window was dismantled and put into storage – a task that owner Abdullah Essoni described as "an agonisingly complex and technical task".

"I'm just glad," he said, "we're going to preserve it, and I'm sure it will be reinstated in all its glory". We'll raise a toast to that!

2. The world's largest louvred glass wall

Chances are you've come across louvres before. Also known as jalousies, they're a kind of slatted window that can be tilted open and shut to regulate the amount of air and sunlight getting through.

A louvred glass window or louvred glass wall does the same thing, but the slats are made out of glass. They can be controlled either by a cord or by remote control.

The biggest in the world was constructed by Shandong Dixini Hollow Louver Glass Co. in Shanghai, China, in late 2023. It's a whopping 17 square metres and is operated electronically.

3. The world's largest glass print

Located in central Stockholm, Sweden and opened in 2010, Kungsbrohuset is a 150-metre-long 13-floor office building.

It's home to the largest glass print in the world. This impressive installation depicts a forest and a meadow, both inspired by Stockholm's Smedsmora nature reserve. The print has a total size of 4.92 metres by 42.24 metres.

These two images are hugely complex. Each one consists of nearly 100 glass pieces. They were designed by Peter Ahlen and Lutt Jeorell of the Swedish firm Art on Glass.

Kungsbrohuset uses glass in another remarkable way. Its outer walls are entirely made of glass. These cover an inner wall that's 60% glass. This is a much more sustainable design than traditional steel and glass, described as "an unbelievably efficient system, featuring what is, in effect, quintuple glazing".

But the building's eco credentials don't end there. It's partly heated with waste heat from Stockholm Central Station and cooled with water from the Klara Sjö canal.

4. The world's largest glass window

Since 1996, the Chinese company Taikang has provided insurance, asset management and health and elderly care. Its stature is reflected in two huge skyscrapers: one on the Wuhan skyline and one in Beijing.