Edificio Copello: Innovative Applications of Industrialized Glass in the Modern Architecture of Santo Domingo.

Abstract

The debut of the twentieth century saw important technological innovations in the development of building materials. Some of these advances refer to the creation of materials whose technical performance would respond to the demands of comfort, health and aesthetics of an increasing mark, due to social progress in terms of law and the welfare state. In this sense, the glass industry experienced important changes in the creation and manufacture of products that achieved great popularity, due to their versatility of application and marketing prices. In this article we will refer to the innovative glass solutions used by the architect Guillermo González in the facades of the Copello Building (1938-1939), in the city of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The incorporation of aluminum carpentry in the horizontal window strips, the exterior closure of the main staircase module with isothermal glass blocks, the covering of the store front with Vitrolite sheets and the introduction of shop windows with curved panels establish a new aesthetic code in the main commercial artery of the Dominican capital. and they generate an important change in the paradigm of modernity. This work shows an interesting process of Caribbean synthesis between the aesthetic canons promoted by the European avant-garde and the pragmatic technological audacity that characterized the United States during the Great Depression.