Precious metal

摘要

Metal-framed windows have been around for a long time. Not long like computers or even cars, more like as long as the spinning jenny. In 1764, when James Hargreaves was inventing his weaving machine, blacksmiths had already been knocking out metal-framed windows for more than a century. Mention metal windows to contemporary architects, though, and they are far more likely to recall the early part of the last century, when the influence of Le Corbusier and Bauhaus crossed the channel. A housing shortage after the First World War presented the modernists with a plethora of projects on which to practise their synthesis of engineering and architecture, and incorporate the very latest in metal-framed windows.