Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace, famous exhibition hall designed by Sir Joseph Paxton for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. Because of its great size and its innovative use of glass and iron in prefabricated units, it was a milestone in the development of modern architecture.

The exhibition was organized in only 18 months, and the design was not agreed until 10 months before the opening. It was this tight schedule, the need to keep down costs, and a desire that the structure should not be a permanent fixture on its site in Hyde Park which effectively drove the design considerations and the choice of materials. Paxton had already built glass and iron greenhouses at Chatsworth, and applied the same modular principles in the Crystal Palace, on an enormous scale. The finished structure's length was 563 m (1,848 ft), while its round-arched transept, 33 m (108 ft) high, was 124 m (408 ft) wide. The building's long axis was stepped in three progressively higher stages, the central “nave” being 19.5 m (64 ft) high, the second level accommodating an upper gallery which increased the area of exhibition space, and the widest ground-floor level housing most of the exhibits. A mixture of wrought and cast iron was used, totalling some 4,500 tons in weight. Nearly 17,000 cu m (600,000 cu ft) of wood was used for the internal exhibition structures, while the 293,655 panes of glass covered a total area of 83,610 sq m (900,000 sq ft). The internal area covered by the exhibits was 92,143 sq m (991,857 sq ft).

After the exhibition closed, the prefabricated building was dismantled and then reconstructed at Sydenham in South London. The Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire in 1936. See also Modern Art and Architecture.