Century Glass emerges as a signature installation at the entrance of a new housing development transforming the concept of a town clock into a meditation on permanence and change. Conceived as a response to the developer’s vision of creating infrastructure designed to last a century, this sculptural timepiece draws inspiration from the Clock of the Long Now while responding to the distinctive heat and sunlight of North Central Texas.
Unlike traditional timepieces that merely display time, Century Glass physically transforms it. The sculpture features two primary elements that evolve in opposing rhythms over the course of 100 years: the “Time-to-Come Sand Silo” gradually empties as the “Time-Past Bead Cone” steadily accumulates.
At the heart of the installation, the “Sintering Plate” serves as the present moment—a solar-powered crucible where concentrated sunlight transforms ordinary silica sand into perfectly formed glass beads. Each day, the sculpture produces approximately 150 new beads through a delicate thermodynamic process, using only the power of the Texas sun. A sophisticated pneumatic system, powered by both the weight of the sand and captured thermal energy, launches each newly formed bead to the growing cone.
The installation reimagines the hourglass—instead of sand cycling endlessly within a closed system, Century Glass creates a permanent record of time’s passage. By the end of its century-long performance, the installation will have transformed 365kg of sand into a glittering cone containing 5.5 million individual glass beads, standing just over one meter tall.
Century Glass serves as both functional timepiece and philosophical statement, inviting residents to contemplate the relationship between community infrastructure and the inevitable passage of time. As both monument and functioning instrument, it stands as a reminder that communities, like the beads themselves, are formed one day at a time through sustained energy and attention.
Design work is ongoing with physical prototyping to begin soon.
Critical parameters to the design:
- Maintenance free
- Sand choices=>color, shape, and size of beads
- Trade-offs in protecting the sand, beads, and mechanical elements from the environment while allowing the sun to access the sintering site and for visitors to observe the whole sculpture
- Transporting time-to-come sand to the sintering plate
- Transporting beads to the time past pile
