If you are wondering why glass office furniture is only now reaching a height of popularity, consider that only within the last 10 years has localized delivery throughout the United Kingdom expanded to the point where large heavy items such as glass desktops can be safely shipped throughout the mainland UK. Simple shipping devices that we take for granted such as molded Styrofoam packing materials did not exist as recently as 30 years ago.
When coupled with simple improvements such as smoother roads and more complete highway access to remote areas too, we can see why glass office furniture items were somewhat scarce. Another reason that these items have increased drastically in demand is that, as we enter the information technology age, we use far fewer paper documents. The result of this is that we no longer need the prerequisite file drawers attached to every desk. This makes possible the more artistic design usage of a simple large oval or kidney shaped glass desktop set on either a hardwood or metal frame.