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The Crystal Palace and Its New Aesthetic, Social and Technological Norms Relating to

Industrialization

Kaelyn Graham

101306156

ARCH 2300-A

Date of Submission: November 5th 2024

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The Crystal Palace, built in 1851 by Sir Joseph Paxton in Hyde Park, London, spans 1851 feet

long and encloses 18 acres with the help of no external walls, making this building the largest

prefabricated structure to date.1 Paxton was primarily a landscape gardener however when he entered his

plan to the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nation’s organizers, the chosen plan was

substituted for his.2 This palace expressed the many new social, aesthetic and technological norms that

were pertinent during the mid-nineteenth-century. These included an emphasis on public spaces, rapid

urban growth, emphasized emotion and nature, an advancement in materials and innovative construction

techniques.3 These are expressed in the Crystal Palace with its materiality and societal context along with

being further recognized by important critiques.

When designing the Crystal Palace, Joseph Paxton was inspired by his own design the

Conservatory at Chatsworth. This building type was crucial for several reasons. To begin, the greenhouse

design focused on creating spaces that maximized light and air circulation in order to facilitate plant

cultivation (Figure 1).4 This same idea of efficiency was used in the Crystal Palace, designing for it to be

open and house the Great Exhibition of 1851. In addition, in both cases, Paxton had experimented with

prefabricated iron framing with cast iron, wrought iron and steel allowing quick assembly and reflecting

the industrial advancements at the time.5 To add to this, the greenhouse represented a fusion of nature and

technology, therefore, in using this building type as a precedent, he was able to blend materiality into

nature and stimulate the relationship between mankind and nature. 6 Finally, with his experience at the

Great Conservatory, Paxton created aesthetic appeal that was just as functional as it was beautiful. A

1 Bergdoll, Barry. European Architecture 1750 - 1890. Oxford History of Art. Oxford: Oxford university
press, 2000.
2 “Encyclopedia Britannica | Britannica.” https://www.britannica.com/.
3 Hitchcock, Henry Russell. Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. 4. ed., Bibliogr. rev.
Pelican History of Art. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1987.
4 “Encyclopedia Britannica | Britannica.” https://www.britannica.com/.
5 Hitchcock, Henry Russell. Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. 4. ed., Bibliogr. rev.
Pelican History of Art. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1987.
6 Bergdoll, Barry. European Architecture 1750 - 1890. Oxford History of Art. Oxford: Oxford university
press, 2000.
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couple examples of this are that his hollow cast iron columns were also used as a drainage system and that

his complex, appealing roof was used to channel water while creating tracks for small iron carts used by

roof glazers to install glass panes into the iron frame.7

The Crystal Palace was emblematic of a broader crisis and transformation in mid-nineteenth-

century British society which defined its significance in relation to the new societal measures. There were

many underlying tensions and contradictions with industrialization at the time. These included harsh

working conditions in factories, loss of employment, a growing divide between social classes, negative

living conditions because of urbanization and the main issue of a large focus on technology negatively

impacting citizens. With the many disputes regarding these topics, the Great Exhibition was essential and

a monumental moment. The competitors in global industrialization sought to contain an expanding world

of both knowledge and trade under the same roof.8 It allowed a space for countries to come together to

promote collaboration, celebrate the advancements in industry and technology and gain knowledge on the

advancements around the globe (Figure 2). It was also a space to share the crises and debates happening

over the different materials and over industrialization as a whole. Having this exhibition located at the

Crystal Palace, the new materials, prefabricated elements and technological advancements were put on

display while also showing wealth and power with its grandiosity.

Even while being praised for its short completion time and its impactful presence in society,

many people, notably John Ruskin, offered insightful critiques. With the manner in which he denounced

the Crystal Palaces design, one could say this is just as much an architectural criticism as it is a cultural

critique. Ruskin makes it clear that he believes that the concept of such a design is “dishonest” and

criticizes saying: “there is assuredly as much ingenuity required to build a crew frigate or a tubular bridge

as a hall of glass.”9 However, he does culturally critique when bringing up Doric and Palladian pride, that

orders and the proportions, that used to define architecture, being done. In addition to this, having the new

7 Bergdoll, Barry. European Architecture 1750 - 1890. Oxford History of Art. Oxford: Oxford university
press, 2000.
8 Bergdoll, Barry. European Architecture 1750 - 1890. Oxford History of Art. Oxford: Oxford university
press, 2000.
9 Harvie, Chris, ed. Industrialisation and Culture: 1830 - 1914. London: Macmillan [u.a.], 1981.
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technology and the industrialization being so prominent, there is an important lesson with the dignity and

freedom being lost to the factory system.10 Similarly, Ruskin states; “It is impossible, I repeat, to estimate

the influence of such an institution on the minds of the working class.”11 This proves to be a critique on

the influence of the building in relation to the crisis of the mid-nineteenth-century.

Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace represented much of the world's transformation in the ages of the

Industrial Revolution. He sought out to represent optimism in the material, the monumental exhibition

and was as praised as he was critiqued. With this conscious design of a building for good use, he was able

to touch the hearts of many and still use many new architectural techniques to do so, making it

revolutionary. At the time these new norms were very important however, immediately after the Great

Exhibition, the structure was taken down and moved elsewhere to return Hyde Park to its original state. 12

Even with its short time located there, the aesthetic, social and technological norms from that time did

influence the future with facilitating the act of construction allowing the Crystal Palace to remain an

important moment in history.

10 Harvie, Chris, ed. Industrialisation and Culture: 1830 - 1914. London: Macmillan [u.a.], 1981.
11 Harvie, Chris, ed. Industrialisation and Culture: 1830 - 1914. London: Macmillan [u.a.], 1981.
12 “Encyclopedia Britannica | Britannica.” https://www.britannica.com/.
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Figure 1: The Conservatory at Chatsworth

Figure 2: The Crystal Palace and the Great Exhibition

References
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Bergdoll, Barry. European Architecture 1750 - 1890. Oxford History of Art. Oxford: Oxford
university press, 2000.
“Encyclopedia Britannica | Britannica.” https://www.britannica.com/.
Harvie, Chris, ed. Industrialisation and Culture: 1830 - 1914. London: Macmillan [u.a.], 1981.
Hitchcock, Henry Russell. Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. 4. ed., Bibliogr. rev.
Pelican History of Art. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1987.