Transcript THE CRYSTAL PALACE

CRSYTAL PALACE
CONTENTS
1. LOCATION
2. ARCHITECT
3. CONCEPT
4. DESIGN
5. SIGNIFICANCE
LOCATION
This lithograph shows Joseph Paxton's massive glass house, or
Crystal Palace as it came to be known, in its original location
in Hyde Park looking south eastwards towards Chelsea. It
covered almost 19 acres of the park with its structure
measuring about 563 metres long by 138 metres wide. The
large rectangular building consisted of three stepped storeies
and a barrel vaulted transept, which Paxton added to his
original design to accommodate some trees on the park site.
The building sat in the park to the south of the Serpentine
lake, stretching from what is now Exhibition Road up to
Knightsbridge Barracks. The entrance was via the transept to
the building, nearly opposite Prince of Wales Gate. This site
can be seen in the estate plan c.1862 and the aerial photograph
of 1944.
ARCHITECT
NAME:JOSEPH PAXTON
BORN :1801 ENGLAND
DIED :1869 (SYNDENHAM)
A farmer's son, he was
apprenticed as a gardener to
the Chatsworth estate where
he eventually attained the
position of head gardener
Paxton developed an interest
in glasshouses at Chatsworth
where he designed a series of
buildings with "forcing frames"
for espalier trees.
CONCEPTION
The Commission in charge of mounting
the Great Exhibition was established in
January 1850, and it was decided at the
outset that the entire project would be
funded by public subscription. An
executive Building Committee was quickly
formed to oversee the design and
construction of the exhibition building,
comprising Isambard Kingdom Brunel,
Robert Stephenson, renowned architects .
By 15 March 1850 they were ready to
invite submissions, which had to conform
to several key specifications: the building
had to be temporary, simple, as cheap as
possible, and economical to build within
the short time remaining before the
Exhibition opening, which had already
been scheduled for 1 May 1851.
CONSTRUCTION
stakes were driven into the ground to roughly mark out
the positions for the cast iron columns; these points
were then set precisely by theodolite measurements.
The columns were erected in opposite pairs,
then two more girders were connected to
form a self-supporting square—this was the
basic frame of each module. The shears
would then be moved along and an
adjoining bay constructed. More than 1,000
iron columns supported 2,224 trellis girders
and 30 miles of guttering, comprising 4,000
tonnes of iron in all.[17]
INTERIOR DESIGN
Jones opted for a vibrant colour
scheme using only primary colours. His
controversial plan caused much debate,
prompting him to defend his views in a
lecture before the Institute of British
Architects on 16 December 1850. Jones
proposed the use of stripes of red,
yellow and blue, derived from his belief
that during all great periods of art only
the primary colours were used.
Large appliqué hangings were also used in the upper levels as a simple and inexpensive
form of bold decoration. The interior design of the Crystal Palace went on to become
much admired.
EXTERIOR DESIGN
The geometry of the
Crystal Palace was a
classic example of the
concept of form following
function - the shape and
size of the whole building
was directly based around
the size of the panes of
glass made by the
supplier.
Transept roof were constructed using the key element of Paxton's design - his patented
ridge-and-furrow roofing system, which had first use at Chatsworth. The basic roofing
unit, in essence, took the form of a long triangular prism, which made it both extremely
light and very strong, and meant it could be built with the minimum amount of
materials.Which was key in the exterior design of the building.
GREAT EXHIBITION
The Great Exhibition was opened on 1 May 1851 by Queen Victoria. It was the first of the
World's Fair exhibitions of culture and industry. There were some 100,000 objects, displayed
along more than ten miles, by over 15,000 contributors.[20] Britain occupied half the display
space inside with exhibits from the home country and the Empire. France was the largest
foreign contributor. The exhibits were grouped into four main categories—Raw Materials,
Machinery, Manufacturers and Fine Arts
Relocation and redesign
a suitable holding company and proposed that the edifice be
erected on a property named Penge Place that had been excised
from Penge Common atop Sydenham Hill.
The constructing of the building began on Sydenham Hill in
1852. The new building, while incorporating most of the
constructional parts of the Hyde Park building, was so completely
different in form as to be properly considered a quite different
structure – a 'Beaux-arts' form in glass and metal. The main gallery
was redesigned and covered with a new barrel-vaulted roof, the
central transept was greatly enlarged and made even higher, and
two new transepts were added at either end of the main gallery. It
was modified and enlarged so much that it extended beyond the
boundary of Penge Place, which was also the boundary between
Surrey and Kent
SIGNIFICANCE
The Great Exhibition of 1851 in London’ Crystal
Palace was conceived to symbolize this industrial,
military and economic superiority of Great
Britain. Just representing the feats of Britain itself
would have excluded many of the technological
achievements pioneered by the British in its many
colonies and protectorates, so it was decided to make
the exhibit truly international with invitations being
extended to almost all of the colonized world.
CHALLENGES
1. There were major leaks experienced in the building.
2. They had very poor sealant materials on the glass
3. Maintaining good temperature and air conditioning as
good ventilation systems had not been developed.
4. Trees that had been enclosed in the building nested
sparrows who chirp and fly around the building.
REFERENCES
^ "Crystal Palace history Leaving Hyde Park October
1851". ^ a b "The Rebuilding at Sydenham, 1852-1854".
Crystal Palace Foundation. ^ "Open Again, 1854". The
Crystal Palace Foundation. ^ "The Great Exhibition at
the Crystal Palace". The Victorian Station.
Architecture arouses sentiments in a
person. The architect's task therefore, is
to make those sentiments more precise.
THE END
B02/35049/2013
WAWERU GABRIEL NJENGA