ARC523 Advanced Building Systems

Lecture: Joseph Paxton and the Crystal Palace.

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Link to images of the Crystal Palace
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1721 INTRO
Richard Bradley, Prof.. of Botany, Cambridge

first describes the relationship of plants to their environment thus making horticulturists the first heating experts.

"As every animal has its climate and food natural to it, so has every plant an exposure, temper of air, and soil, proper to nourish and maintain it in a right state of health"

ARTIFICIAL CLIMATE
"Because of their beauty and often dramatic dimensions, it is easy to lose sight of what glasshouses were all about;
'artificial climate'. I like this phrase, which was coined by Loudon, because it represents a positive, even arrogant, confidence in technology that was so prevalent in the 19th century. Today we call it air-conditioning and it represent to us, in architecture, the tempering of existing environment to allow for the activities of man. In the 19th century, however, 'artificial climate' evoked the climate of the tropical colonies a time of romanticism filled with artifacts, stories and botanical exotics of lands... 'far away.
Loudon projected a time 'when such artificial climates will not only be stocked with appropriate birds, fishes and harmless animales, but with examples of the human species from the different countries imitated, habited in their particular costumes and who may serve as gardeners or curators of the different productions."

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1822 NO LIMIT
'Over a century and a half ago, J. C. Loudon discusses the same idea in great detail in his 1822 Encyclopedia of Gardening:
"Indeed, there is hardly any limit to the extent to which this sort of light (ridge and furrow) roof might not be carried; several acres, even a whole country residence, where the extent was moderate, might be covered in this way."
ARTIFICIAL RAIN
He made provision for artificial rain, steam heat and vents controlled by Kewley's automatons and a roof up to 150, height, to admit:
.."the tallest oriental trees, and the undisturbed fight of appropriate birds among their branches."
Later Loudon was to suggest that it might be preferable to begin with 25' and to raise the roof by adding to the columns as the plants grow. In this controlled environment Loudon suggests that:
A variety of oriental birds and monkey and other animals might be introduced; and in ponds, a stream made to run by machinery, and also in salt lakes-fishes, polypi, corals, and other productions of fresh or sea-water might be cultivated or kept.
Hotbeds, shallow trenches, filled with dung or bark, generates heat Smudge pots

Cast iron charcoal carts or wagons

by end of 17th century,

stoves or underground (or underfloor) vault for fire with masonry flue running under the floor

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HEATING SYSTEMS
The problem with dry heat - introduction of ventilation
1661 Thermometer invented in Florence , Loudon
1788 steam introduced, originally steam actually pumped into greenhouse or into beds of stones to retain the heat
1817 steam boilers, piping in vaults, 1000 foot runs, recirculating condensate
1829 Russian Imperial Gardens, Czar Alexander, medical botany, has 80,000 plants, 11,000 species
Tropical plant houses, furnaces 1 2'-0" O.C. stoked every 12 hours.
LOUDON FORECASTS
'central steam boilers as an all-purpose power source for small country estates; heating the glasshouses, the stables, the mansion house, the baths, laundries, malt kilns, cattle and poultry houses, while providing power for the mill, threshing machine, turnip and straw cutter, fire engine, in addition to pumping water to elevated reservoirs that would supply water closets and hosebibs.'

Inability of steam to retain heat, Use of water, first to store, then to distribute the heat.

In England today many houses are heated with off-peak storage heaters, which are simply a stack of bricks absorbing cheap night electricity and radiating it during the day'

1813 SOANE DOESN'T KNOW
In 1813 Loudon described a situation that should be observed architects today:

"We are not surprised that Mr. Atkinson should not have heard of what Chabannes had done; for we have learned, from what we consider undoubted authority, that when in January last, some of the Bank of England directors proposed to heat part of their establishment by hot water, their architect, eminent though he is, had not heard of such a mode of heating". The architect was John Soane

1830 High pressure hot water heat, 350 degrees, 135 lb/sq in.
Need to move air as well as provide fresh air
Early 1800's ventilation introduced into factories, hospitals, homes
1812 first use of forced air furnace in the Old Bailey and a greenhouse included circulating air over tubes filled with steam in winter through a cool cellar with tubes filled with water in summer. 
Air forced by a fan powered by a descending weight duct made of canvas
THERMOMETER
The 'automaton gardener' was a thermometer balanced so that as it tipped it triggered other controls.
Collection of rainwater to use for watering the plants Use of columns as drain pipes
PIPES AS COLUMNS
Boulton and Watt were making pipes for columns, steam and sewers. Use of rain making machines with perforated pipes.

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PAXTON ARRIVES AT CHATSWORTH
1846 .arrived in England in
"1846, but the small plants did not prosper. In 1849 Paxton set about building a heated tank in a curvilinear glass house at Chatsworth. In it, he put a small plant with leaves less than six inches in diameter, which he had procured from Sir William Hooker, Kew's director. The plant was so small that it arrived in a 13" x 13" box and was set in the soil of the 12 ft. square tank on August 10. By the end of September, the largest leaf measured 3'-6" in diameter and the tank size had to be doubled. These were the Midas years for Paxton and he could do no wrong; the lily bloomed on November 8 and a week later Paxton presented the first English bloom and a leaf to the Queen and Prince Albert at Windsor Castle.

Gardner at various places, eventually at Duke of Somerset at Wimbledon, then to new gardens of the Horticultural Society leased to 6th Duke of Devonshire at Chiswick House at Charsworth, England.

August 3 1803 Born  Woburn England, son of a farmer
1826 (age 23) becomes gardener for Duke of Devonshire gradually taking on management of Dukes estates in all aspects
1834 Well traveled: , Paris, Versailles
1835 English countryside
1838 Switzerland, Italy, Malta, Greece, Turkey
1846 Germany, Austria
Age of Science and Reason
  • Paxton was well read, wrote well and drew well
  • Exceptional knowledge of botany
  • Yielded need for year round enclosure yielded the greenhouse exploration throughout the world interest in exotic plants, animals, people
Paxton personality
  • Observant,
  • Analytical
  • Prone to experimentation
  • Eye for procedure
  • Nature and industry seen as alik
    (Procedural, subject to understanding and control)

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1850 SOUTH AMERICAN WATER LILY
THE TANK
Later named the Victoria Regia
SPEED OF BUILDING
The lily tank had been, temporarily, set up in the 26' x 60' elliptical roof glass stove' but on Paxton's ridge and furrow principles. The 'stove' was built in 1836 to demonstrate wood-laminated construction as a prototype of the Great Conservatory, but it was too narrow for the Victoria Regia's astonishing growth habits. The construction of a new house was imminent. In the spring of 1850 the New Victoria Regia House was ready to nurture the ever-expanding prize, which that year produced 112 flowers and 140 leaves.

The speed of building the new house may surprise us today. But Paxton had developed his ridge and furrow model ten years previously in a design (later abandoned) for a flat-roof conservatory on Lord Burlington's estate. Later he had a ridge and furrow glass house built on another estate.

PAXTON'S RESOURCES
Paxton commanded a large force of men and had direct contact with glass manufacturers and iron founders.
Coincides with rapid advance in glass manufacturing and iron making
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GREAT EXHIBITION of 1851
BACKGROUND
By the time of the Great Exhibition Paxton has:
  • 20 years designing glass structures
  • 15 years in railroad speculation
  • 15 years designing conventional buildings
  • 10 years designing parks and suburbs
January 1850 Royal Commission to sponsor the Great Exhibition established by Parliament.
Members:
  • Lord John Russell, Prime Minister
  • Sir Robert Peel's Life 1788-1850, former Member of Parliament and former Prime Minister.
  • William Ewart Gladstone 1809 - 1898, former President of the Board of Trade (Minister of Industry and Commerce) and later Chancellor of the Exchequer (Minister of Finance)
  • Richard Cobden 1804-1865, a Member of Parliament with a business background.
  • Earl Granville, cousin of the Duke of
  • Sir Charles Barry 1795-1860, architect of the Houses of Parliament (Westminster Palace), then under construction. One of his sons, Sir John Wolfe-Barry, was the engineer for Tower Bridge.
  • William Cubitt 1785-1861, railway and canal engineer, builder

Consulted with Charles Barry and William Cubitt about probable cost.  Sutherland

January 1850 Committee
Established a Building Committee 1-year before expected opening with the following members: 
  • William Cubitt,1785-1861, railway and canal engineer, builder, chair of the committee and, in effect, consulting engineer for the building, knighted for his role in the building of the crystal palace.
  • Duke of Buccleuch, builder
  • Earl of Ellesmere, builder, politician, author, and philanthropist
  • Charles Robert Cockerell 1788-1863, architect, in 1819 he was appointed surveyor of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, and in 1833 he became chief architect of the Bank of England.
  • Thomas Donaldson, architect
  • Sir Charles Barry, architect
  • Robert Stephensen, engineer
  • Isambard Kingdom Brunel, engineer, designer and builder of the iron steam driven ship the Great Eastern, originally named the Liviathan

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COMPETITION
Competition announced: March 13, 1850
  • 245 designs submitted (some histories say 233 submissions) with 38 from foreign countries, 27 of which were from France.
  • 65 receive mention
  • 18 receive "further higher honorary distinction"
  • 2 special mentions:

All were rejected.

2 "Ferro-vitreous" projects received "special mention":
1. Richard Turner of Dublin, designer of Palm House at Kew, Conservatory at Regents Park, great train shed in Liverpool

Image of Turner entry.

2. Hector Horeau, Paris, designer of the Jardin d'Hiver on the Champs Elysées, Paris 1848.

Image of Horeau entry.

Both schemes discarded due to cost and time.
Estimated cost 300,000 pounds.
Budget 80,000 pounds.
For comparison, see Les Halles in Paris, built between 1854 and 1858 (destroyed in 1970) by Victor Baltard, a contemporary of Horeau. One of the original pavilions (number 8 for poultry and eggs) was reassembled in Nogent on Marne on the outskirts east of Paris and is named Pavillion Baltard..
Committee rejects all entries and produces its own scheme.
Produced a huge brick building with a large iron dome (probably by Brunell).
  • Design had a 200 ft diameter dome Would have required 15,000,000 bricks.
  • The design does not meet the committee's own criteria:
  • It would take too long to build, cost too much, could not be dismantled, require all of the masonry to be laid in the winter
Bridges Adam (local newspaper writer)

"The design of the building should be as original as its object. It should not be suggestive of the ideas of a pyramid, a temple, or a palace; for it will not be a tomb, a place of public worship, nor a mansion of royalty. The object should determine the design. That is to say, the design should be altogether subordinate to the uses of the building, and should be of the kind that would express them, or at least harmonize with them."

Paxton had influenced the specifications to allow for alternative designs and costs.

... Paxton visits the site in Hyde Park in June
June 7 Paxton leaves London to visit a railway bridge,
June 10 sees the bridge
June 11 returns to Derby
June 22 finishes the design
June 24 has a long interview with Prince Albert (2 days after the commissions own design was published)
July 2 Debate in the House of Commons
July 6 Paxton publishes his design in the papers, in great detail
July 22 Paxton meets with Fox, the contractor and Chance, the glass manufacturer
July 29 Paxton, Fox, Chance sign agreement
July 16 submission of the final bid:
  • Bid = 150,000 pounds if commission retains ownership of building
  • or = 79,800 pounds if Fox and Henderson retain all materials
  • Problem of the Elm trees, solved with vaulted roof
July 15 Building committee advises commission to accept the bid.
July 26 Bid accepted.
August 1 Fox and Henderson take over the site.
Charles Fox begins preparation of working drawings, 18 hours a day for seven weeks.
October Contract signed.

Had to design, manufacturer and assemble the largest building the Victorian world had ever seen in under a year, (~9 months) most of it in the winter.   Production began even without a contract.

October 31 Contract signed on  1st. (The first column had risen 5 weeks previously.)

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Construction.
Statistics: It is claimed that the entire glass production capacity of England was employed on the Crystal palace.
  • Length 1,848ft Width 456 ft
  • (Compare to St Peters 600' long x 450' wide, 126 years in construction 1506-1626)
  • Height of barrel vault: 135'
  • Enclosed volume 33,000,000
  • 900,00 sq. ft of glass
  • 772,784 sq. ft of ground floor area
  • 217,000 sq. ft of gallery space
  • 18 acres
  • 372 roof trusses, 24 miles of Paxton gutter
  • 205 miles of sash bar,
  • 3000 columns
  • 600,000 cubic feet of timber
  • Critical component is the connector piece.

Image of connector piece.

May 1851 Building opens
  • More than 6,000,000 people visited over the entire run of the exhibition.
  • 13,000 exhibitors
  • Closed with a $750,000 surplus
October 1851
  • Paxton knighted by Queen Victoria.
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SYDENHAM
June 1852 Entire building dismantled and moved to Sydenham, in Kent.
Rebuilt. Altered with many new parts.
1854 Completed
  • 843,656 sq. ft (smaller than 1851 version, but taller) 50% more volume glass surface doubled
  • For year round use
  • Added heating - 22 boilers ~ 11,000 gal each
  • 50 miles of piping
1936 Damaged by fire.
11,788 water jets, 120,000 gallons per minute gravity fed fountains, water recirculated by steam engines
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OTHER BUILDINGS
1853 New York Exhibition Crystal Palace
1855 France becomes the center of some of the most ambitions construction schemes

International Exhibition, Paris, includes two significant buildings:

The Palais de l'Industrie, with a center span of 48 meters (157.5 feet) constructed with large cast-iron columns and wrought-iron lattice girders.
No tie rods were used but the outward force was resisted by large blocks of lead.

1867 Paris Exhibition

The Galarie des Machines

1889 Paris Exhibition

The Galarie des Machines

  • Designed by Ferdinand Dutert ,
    constructed by Contamin, engineer
  • 375 ft span
  • 1400 long
  • I5Oft high
Eiffel Tower
  • 1000 ft high, designed as temporary structure
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Last update: April 09, 2003. Copyright © 2003 Bruce M. Coleman
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