method and equipment for the manufacture of glass bodies in which a porous green body is formed from the starting material for the glass body in the form of a thixotropic suspension , is dried , purified and then sintered , during which process the starting material is transformed into a state with minimum viscosity and homogenized by the introduction of mechanical forces , is poured in the low - viscosity state into a mould of hydrophobic material corresponding to the shape of the glass body to be manufactured and is dried in the mould until a shrinkage of approximately 10 % is achieved and then , after removal from the mould , is subjected to further processing steps to produce the glass body .