Examining glass in terms of basic design principles in hotel interior designs

Glass, which was discovered in the Paleolithic era, has always taken place in the life of human beings in various ways with many different uses until today. With the development of glass technology, it became an indispensable architectural component, especially after the 19th century. The structural and tectonic understanding of combining glass and steel has rapidly increased the use of glass in building facades. This rapid increase in the use of glass outdoors has not been seen at the same rate in interior designs due to the insufficient safety of glass. After the 1950s, technological developments have been experienced in glass-based materials as in many other fields. As a result of these developments, the dividing element was generally preferred by interior architects in their designs to make the best use of daylight in the interior due to the transparency feature of the glass. In the 2000s, minimizing the fragility of glass in line with technological developments attracted the attention of designers and encouraged the use of glass as a vertical and horizontal component in interior design within different areas and forms. The aim of this study is to examine the technological development and production of glass from past to present and to determine its place in design in parallel with these developments. As the study material, glass designs used in the interiors of six hotels from Turkey and four hotels from other countries around the world were analyzed and classified in terms of basic design principles, color, transparency, curvature, area and lighting. With this study, it is aimed to break this prejudice of designers who are willing to use glass in interior but have some safety concerns about its fragility.