Crystal Palace

The crystal palace was first built in Hyde Park, London. Its construction started in 1850, and the building was opened for public in 1851. The architectural style was Victorian and it had cast-iron architecture. The architect of this well-known master piece was Joseph Paxton. It was later destroyed by fire.


This huge construction of iron and glass that was considered to be one of the greatest wonders of the world was based on a four-foot module. It was a  1,848-foot long ferrovitreous construction. 

Sir Joseph Paxton was a gardener and architect at the time. He revealed breakthroughs in architecture, design and construction. The crystal palace design was chosen for an exhibition building, that was meant to echibit the latest innovations and technologies all around the world. The restrictions of the design for the 'Great Exhibition of works of Industry of all Nations' were that;
-It had to be as economical as possible
-The construction had to be ready before the scheduled date to open, which was 1st May 1851.
After two hundred and forty five rejections by the committee. Paxton took interest in the project. At the time, Paston was a well-known Gardner and he experimented a lot with glasshouse construction. He created the'ridge-and-furrow' roof design by combining prefabricated cast iron, laminated wood and standard-size glass sheets.
His first drawing of his famous concept of the building included all the basic elements, and in the proceeding two weeks, he submitted detailed plane with all the calculations needed. 
The committee was impressed with Paxton's low cast and innovative proposal. Five thousand workers started working on the task to finish this great structure in Hyde Park in just eight months. In the end, construction took only five months, thanks to Paxton's brilliant design. Over 18.000 glass sheets were installed per week, and over 1000 iron columns and 84,000 square meters of glass were installed in all.



The exhibition was closed six months after its opening,and the structure was dissembled from Hyde Park and reassembled at Sydenham Hill; south London suburb. The building was then destroyed by fire in 1936.

This structure became well-known for;
-Its self-supporting self
-Maximised interior space
-The glass let a lot of light in
-It was a breakthrough technology and design
-Created a sophisticated and pro-fabricated design era 

Another iron structure  which still stands today is the Eiffel Tower, Paris

A Victorian iron and glass structure "Kew's Palm House"

Kenneth Frampton and Yukio Futagawa. (1994-2013). crystal palace.Available: http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Crystal_Palace.html. Last accessed 6th january 2014.