Forgotten building materials: the glass block
Beautiful but impractical. The beauty of glass blocks proved to be their undoing due to increased insulation requirements.
The glass block was invented by Swiss architect Gustave Falconnier in the 1880s. It functions similarly to a brick, except that it is made of glass on both sides, but can be used like a brick in a Lego-like manner.
Maison Hermes, Japan from Renzo Piano
Woranol Sattayavinij
Gemäldegalerie Berlin
T meltzer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe very poor insulating properties of glass blocks mean that they are hardly ever used outdoors anymore.
Simply the best for non-load-bearing interior walls.
LinkAnd another major disadvantage: you can't put screws in for pictures :(
Hammer in a nail? Not really.
Basile Morin, Wikimedia Commons CC 4.0That's why glass blocks almost exclusively appear in modernist Buildings.
Which is a real shame.