All the Steel buildings that shine in your eyes, the glass facades that reflect the futuristic Architecture and the monumental steel & glass buildings that capture your imagination, would have never grown and flourished, hadn’t the gardener sown the seed of the future in Hyde Park, London in 1851 for the Great Exhibition.
Though discriminated initially as a Gardener’s design and criticized after construction as a glass monster, Crystal Palace, built as a temporary building, still survives at Sydenham Hill (shifted after great fire) and the heart of the people.
Not only did Joseph Paxton ignite the furnaces for Glass with Crystal Palace during industrial revolution, he also paved the path for many new concepts of Architecture which are followed to this date.
The roots of Modular Coordination, Reuse of materials, Prefabrication and Factory production of buildings sprouted in this very Exposition Hall. Though this gigantic structure is about 1850 feet long, 450 feet wide and 130 feet high; it was built with the basic module for the construction being the glass panes, which merely measured 1220mm X 250mm, prefabricated wrought iron elements based on 1.2m module and construction grid of 7.32m. The components were prefabricated by the respective companies, transported to the site and assembled in situ in just nine months; which is one of the most important aspect of modern construction techniques.
Even though Joseph Paxton, a gardener by profession, had used glass and cast iron structures in green houses earlier, Crystal Palace was the conclusion of his earlier work on ‘glass and cast iron’ structures and ‘ridge and furrow’ roofing.
The exhibition was organized for showcasing the technological advancements made during the industrial revolution and thus attracted huge crowd from near and far end of the world. The Crystal Palace provided the organizers with a perfect platform, as it was not only an exhibition space; the Crystal Palace was an exhibit itself.
