ZAK World of Facades in Washington Concentrates on Adaptive Reuse, Sustainability
Press
This article was originally published on March 23, 2026, by Glass Magazine.
ZAK World of Facades, a conference focused on façade design and engineering, was held March 19 in Washington, D.C. Many featured educational sessions were tailored to the host city’s built environment, and adaptive reuse and sustainability emerged as major themes. Glass was a throughline of the conference, praised for its daylighting capability and design versatility. “Glass is such an ethereal material, because it can both reflect or be transparent,” says Jason Wu, Associate, BIG.
Several case studies offered ways to maximize glass’s daylighting potential thoughtfully, often in combination with other building materials.
Here are a few takeaways from the conference.
