Glass and technology are probably two words that you don’t put in the same category.  Whilst you’re busy staring dreamily out of the window thinking about what else you could be doing, there are people working with glass to make it more interactive, more ‘user friendly’, more interesting. The truth is; there is more technology in glass and our future with it that you can possibly imagine.  The video below is testament to this as much of what is portrayed in it already exists today to some degree.

You can already see its use in items we work with every day, our mobile phones, touch screens, televisions and monitors, induction hobs are just the start of things to come as designers strive to create more minimal and streamlined living spaces.  Making items more interactive, where one item communicates with the next.

Offices and the work environment are changing rapidly. Gone are the days where everyone gets their own office and the form of transferring documents is by post. Life has been streamlined to make people communicate in different ways with each other.  This, i feel is due to the fact that years ago when you had your own office and posted documents to clients, it forced a social interaction whereby you would have to meet face to face, talk about what you wanted and then catch up on the telephone (or pay phone if you were out and about) to discuss further details and then possible post further information. Conversations and interactions which used to take a week now take 10 minutes and you don’t even need to know who sent you the information as their email address tells you who they are and with which company.

People like people. We like knowing that someone is there, not necessarily to talk to but just to be in close proximity with someone else gives a sense of comfort. Bring on the new millennium and what initially seemed to be a gradual process of emailing something every now and then, all of a sudden absolutely everything is being emailed – project documents, legal documents, medical documents and the office environment goes from cellular spaces to completely open plan. People don’t want to be cooped up in an office as then they really would have no interaction with the outside world whatsoever.  With everything being open plan ‘hot-desking’ is the new trend whereby you sit wherever you want in the office. Mobile devices are now the norm and glass plays a huge part in the future of mobile devices. We have video conferencing facilities wherever we go, we can walk into a meeting room, click a button and the glass changes from clear to opaque for privacy. Retail stores will take full advantage of  this by having their shop fronts ‘approach’ clients with items suited to them. Glass looks the part and can be used in so many applications both commercially and domestically that the future of its capabilities, I feel, are just beginning.