Architectural glass is glass that is used as a building material. It is most typically used as transparent glazing material in the building envelope, including windows in the external walls. Glass is also used for internal partitions and as an architectural feature. When used in buildings, glass is often of a safety type, which include reinforced, toughened and laminated glasses.

One of the earliest methods of glass window manufacture was the crown glass method. Hot blown glass was cut open opposite the pipe, then rapidly spun on a table before it could cool. Centrifugal force shaped the hot globe of glass into a round, flat sheet. The sheet would then be broken off the pipe and trimmed to form a rectangular window to fit into a frame.

At the center of a piece of crown glass, a thick remnant of the original blown bottle neck would remain, hence the name "bullseye." Optical distortions produced by the bullseye could be reduced by grinding the glass. The development of diaper latticed windows was in part because three regular diamond-shaped panes could be conveniently cut from a piece of Crown glass, with minimum waste and with minimum distortion.

This method for manufacturing flat glass panels was very expensive and could not be used to make large panes. It was replaced in the 19th century by the cylinder, sheet, and rolled plate processes, but it is still used in traditional construction and restoration.

Human beings have learned to make use of glass for thousands of years, but for more than 1000 years, the development of building glass materials has been relatively slow. With the development of modern science and technology and glass technology and the improvement of people's living standard, the building glass function is no longer simply to meet the lighting requirements, but can adjust light, heat insulation, safety (anti-theft, bullet proof, fire prevention, anti radiation, electromagnetic interference, etc.) Art Deco features. With the continuous development of demand, the molding and processing methods of glass have also developed new. Now, new technologies such as interlayer, toughening, ion exchange, glaze decoration, chemical thermal decomposition and cathode sputtering have been developed, making the amount of glass in building rapidly increase, and become the third largest building material after cement and steel.