CRSYTAL PALACECRSYTAL 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 ENGLANDDIED :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 DESIGNThe 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 redesigna 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.

THE ENDB02/35049/2013WAWERU GABRIEL NJENGA

Architecture arouses sentiments in a person. The architect's task therefore, is to make those sentiments more precise.