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2023
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Falconnier is a unique invention, a favorite material of the Art Nouveau era, and a symbol of aesthetics at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The brick got its name after the inventor - the Swiss architect and engineer Gustave Falconnier (1845 - 1913), who, based on many years of glassmaking experience, created a material that took its place in world construction practice for half a century. The development of molds and models of hollow glass bricks, which were made by hand blowing, began in the 1880s and was continued by Falconnier throughout his later life.
The manufacturing principle, as well as the technology of laying glass bricks, have been patented in Europe and the USA. The new building material perfectly muffled and diffused sunlight was durable with low weight and had both functional and aesthetic qualities. In 1893, the invention was presented at the Chicago World's Fair, after which the technology spread throughout Europe and the Russian Empire.
At the exhibition "Falconnier. Architecture of Light" at the Museum of Architecture. A. Shchusev presented more than 100 items: glass bricks from European and Russian Empire manufacturers, and Soviet glass blocks. The key exhibits of the exhibition were modern glass bricks of the Falconnier system, assembled into multi-colored masonry in the space of the Wing "Ruin".
