Dr. ir. Telesilla Bristogianni specializes in cast glass structures, glass recycling, and glass strength and defect characterization. She is working as a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment and finishing her PhD work at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences on the “Strength and flaws of structural cast glass”. She is also the Cast Glasslab supervisor at CiTG. She holds a diploma degree of Architect Engineer (NTUA) and a MSc degree in Building Technology (TU Delft). In 2014, when she joined TU Delft, she worked together with Faidra Oikonomopoulou in the research, development and construction supervision of the adhesively bonded cast glass block system for the Crystal Houses façade in Amsterdam, designed by MVRDV.

For their work in the Crystal Houses the two researchers have received multiple awards, including the Innovation Award 2016 by the Society of Façade Engineers and the Talent met Toekomst Bouwprijs 2017. Through this project Telesilla and Faidra discovered the architectural potential of cast glass, but also saw the engineering challenges involved. This is when they conceived the idea of Re3 Glass; a reversible system out of recycled cast glass components. The project was awarded two 4TU.Bouw Lighthouse grants (2016, 2017), nominated for the New Material Award 2018 and the STARTS Prize 2020, and exhibited at Venice Design 2018, Dutch Design Week 2018, Milan Design Week 2019, and at the permanent collection of Vitra Schaudepot and the Parlamentarium (EU Parliament Visitor’s center in Brussels). Telesilla has also been involved together with Faidra in the development and prototyping of cast glass facades and structures such as the Glass Vault by SOM & Princeton University, and the Kuala Lumpur Bvlgari facade designed by MVRDV (initial research stage) and the Qaammat Pavilion in Greenland designed by Konstantin Arkitekter. 

Selected Publications ​

• Glass up-casting: a review on the current challenges in glass recycling and a novel approach for recycling “as-is” glass waste into volumetric glass components, Bristogianni, T., & Oikonomopoulou, F. (2022). Glass Structures & Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40940-022-00206-9

• Adhesive solutions for cast glass assemblies: Ground rules emerging from built case studies on adhesive selection and experimental validation. Oikonomopoulou, F., Bristogianni, T. (2022). Glass Structures & Engineering

• The adhesively-bonded glass brick system of the Qaammat Pavilion in Greenland: From research to realization. F. Oikonomopoulou, T. Bristogianni, M. van der Velden, K. Ikonomidis, (2022). In: Journal of Architecture, Structures and Construction

• Investigating the flexural strength of recycled cast glass, Bristogianni, T., Oikonomopoulou, F., Yu, R., Veer, F. A., & Nijsse, R. (2020), Glass Structures and Engineering, 5(3), 445–487. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40940-020-00138-2. ​

• On the flexural strength and stiffness of cast glass, Bristogianni, T., Oikonomopoulou, F., & Veer, F. A. (2021), Glass Structures and Engineering, 6(2), 147-194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40940-021-00151-z. ​

• Exploratory Study on the Fracture Resistance of Cast Glass, Bristogianni, T., Oikonomopoulou, F., Veer, F. A., & Nijsse, R. (2021), International Journal of Structural Glass and Advanced Materials Research, 5, 195-225. https://doi.org/10.3844/sgamrsp.2021.195.225. ​

• Structural cast glass components manufactured from waste glass: Diverting everyday discarded glass from the landfill to the building industry, Bristogianni, T., Oikonomopoulou, F., Justino de Lima, C., Veer, F., & Nijsse, R. (2018), Heron, 63(1/2), 57-102. [4]. ​

• Interlocking cast glass components, Exploring a demountable dry-assembly structural glass system, Oikonomopoulou, F., Bristogianni, T., Barou, L., Jacobs, E., Frigo, G., Veer, F., & Nijsse, R. (2018), Heron, 63(1/2), 103-138. ​

• The construction of the Crystal Houses façade: challenges and innovations, Oikonomopoulou, F., Bristogianni, T., Veer, F., & Nijsse, R. (2017), Glass Structures and Engineering, 3 (2018), 87-108. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40940-017-0039-4.​

​ TU Delft Research Profile

Selected Research Projects ​

- Crystal Houses Façade – Built Project

- Re3 Glass – Research Project

- Glass in Restoration - Research Project

- Automated Robotic Construction: The Glass Vault - Built Project

- Qaammat pavilion – Built Project

- Kintsugi Glass & Concrete Façade - Research project

- Mirage Project - Research Project

- Investigating the strength of cast glass - Research project