Layered glass can really make design stand out. These sculptural works use layers of 2D images to create a 3D piece of material artistry.

Designed and constructed by Turkish artist Ardan Özmenoglu, the works are great demonstrations of the potential of glass. The sculptures make clever use of high transparency material to allow maximum light through. Each layer of glass has part of an image screen-printed on it.

Each successive image is slightly different from those that precede it. The artist describes her method as ‘slicing’ a flat image into its constituent parts. This is a little like the layers of a Photoshop image. The set of flat images is then projected onto multiple layers of glass. The layered tree ‘sculpture’, pictured, makes superb use of the naturally greenish tint of glass. This adds atmosphere and makes the tree look like it’s floating in mid air.

The artist states that all her art derives from repetition. This has an obvious relation to many aspects of modern life, where repetitive and mass production are core to the way our built environment is constructed. Perhaps these thoughtful works can inspire designers to rethink what repetition and copy-paste design means.

An even more transparent variant is the (expensive) glass used in the curvy Toledo pavilion by Sanaa. The very low iron content raises the material transparency. This is a development by Guardian, who have more interesting developments to their name. All these glass materials are worth taking a look at.

Images via the artist’s website.