Reinterpretation and Development of the “Hypercubic Glass”

The historical starting point for this research project is a design by Spanish architect Emilio Pérez Piñero for Salvador Dalí, dating from 1971. Emilio Pérez Piñero designed a kinetic partition made of foldable glass panels to separate the former stage area from the audience area of the old theater in Figueras, which is to be converted into the Dalí Theater-Museum. By integrating movement as the fourth dimension in architecture, the artifact—known in Spanish as the “Vidriera Hipercúbica”—explores an approach in 20th-century art analogous to the fundamental quantity of time in physics.

Through an iterative process of teaching and research, the construction principles of the “Hypercubic Glass” are adapted to contemporary manufacturing techniques and transformed for the present day. To this end, students in the Master’s program in Architecture at the University of Siegen are developing various working models of the artifact as part of the elective module “Movable Structures,” based on two patents held by the architect. In subsequent engineering analyses conducted by the research assistants at the Chair of Structural Engineering, the working models are analyzed and the design is optimized in terms of materials, dimensions, and joints.

The result of the two-year development of the research project is a prototype of “Hypercubic Glass” presented at the “Glasstec 2022” trade fair in Düsseldorf. The second volume, “Lehre 02,” in the Structural Engineering series contains a clear and informative documentation with comprehensive information and detailed explanations about “Hypercubic Glass.”