ARC523 Advanced Building Systems Lecture: Joseph Paxton and the Crystal Palace. |
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| Link to images of the Crystal Palace | ||
| Links to other sources of information | ||
| 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" |
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| 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." | ||
| 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. |
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| 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' |
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| 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 |
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| 1830 | High pressure hot water heat, 350 degrees, 135 lb/sq in. Need to move air as well as provide fresh air |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| PIPES AS COLUMNS | ||
| Boulton and Watt were making pipes for columns, steam and sewers. Use of rain making machines with perforated pipes. | ||
| 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. |
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| 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 |
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| Paxton personality |
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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. |
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| 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:
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| January 1850 | Royal Commission to sponsor the Great Exhibition established by Parliament. | |
Members:
Consulted with Charles Barry and William Cubitt about probable cost. Sutherland |
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| January 1850 | Committee | |
Established a Building Committee 1-year before expected opening with the
following members:
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| COMPETITION | ||
Competition announced: March 13, 1850
All were rejected. |
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| 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 |
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| 2. Hector Horeau, Paris, designer of
the Jardin d'Hiver on the Champs Elysées, Paris 1848. |
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| Both schemes discarded due to cost and time. Estimated cost 300,000 pounds. Budget 80,000 pounds. |
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| 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).
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| 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. |
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| ... | 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:
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| 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. |
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| October 31 | Contract signed on 1st. (The first column had risen 5 weeks previously.) | |
| Construction. | ||
| Statistics: | It is claimed that the entire glass production capacity of England was
employed on the Crystal palace.
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| May 1851 | Building opens | |
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| October 1851 |
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| SYDENHAM | ||
| June 1852 | Entire building dismantled and moved to Sydenham, in Kent. Rebuilt. Altered with many new parts. |
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| 1854 | Completed | |
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| 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. |
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| 1867 | Paris Exhibition The Galarie des Machines |
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| 1889 | Paris Exhibition The Galarie des Machines
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Eiffel Tower
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| http://soa.syr.edu/faculty/bcoleman/ARC523/lectures/523.lecture.Crystal.Palace.html | Send email to: webmaster@soa.syr.edu | |
| Last update: April 09, 2003. | Copyright © 2003 Bruce M. Coleman | |
| No text, images or content on this page may be copied or linked to without the author's express written permission. | ||