The beauty of Architecture!
There are many reasons why buildings from one era look different
from buildings of another. Sometimes those differences reflect developments in
materials, building processes, or other technologies. Sometimes the differences
arise from cultural or economic shifts. Sometimes the differences reflect an
evolution in what is happening on the inside such as the buildings’ functions.
Iron was a product of the Industrial
Revolution and it was used for civil engineering to build bridges and
factories. Britain led the way in the architectural adaptation of iron. The use
of iron freed buildings and civic structures from historicism because ‘form’
became determined by the material and by engineering principles. With the rise of
railroads, builders employed iron for train sheds as well. The first shed was
London’s Euston Station and the grandest was London’s St. Pancreas Station. Although we label this era a "revolution,"
its title is somewhat misleading. The movement that first took root in Great
Britain wasn't a sudden burst of advancement, but rather a buildup of
breakthroughs that fed off one another.
Without all those creative minds, many of the basic goods and
services we use today wouldn't exist. Therefore, the revolution changed the
lives of many people. Building the infrastructure to support the Industrial
Revolution wasn't easy. The demand for metals, including iron, spurred
industries to come up with more efficient methods for mining and transporting
raw materials. Over
the course of a few decades, iron companies supplied an increasing amount of
iron to factories and manufacturing companies.
Train sheds were nothing more than small-scale pieces
of bridges and the regularized repetition of arches is itself symbolic of mass
production, reflecting the ability of industry to churn out an endless supply
of the same exact product at a constant rhythm. The Great Exhibition of the
Works of Industry of All Nation was housed in the famous Crystal Palace to
showcase the product development, technological advances, agriculture
improvements, and fine and applied arts of the industrial nations. It
celebrated Western industrialization. The building was essentially designed to
be a giant greenhouse but the form resembled an English Cathedral, a cathedral
of industry, which had become the new religion. Unfortunately, the building was
destroyed in a fire in 1936. All
that remains are the listed Italian-style terraces and they will be
incorporated in the new scheme.
Crystal Palace was named after its innovative use of
plate glass, and it was a breathtaking symbol of the British Empire and the
crowning achievement of the Industrial Revolution. It stood in another part of
the capital, Hyde Park, where the exhibition was held. About a year ago, Chinese
billionaire Ni Zhaoxing unveiled his £500million vision for a new Crystal
Palace, which will put a missing piece of British history back in place. The
vast glass structure, the original of which was home to the Great Exhibition of
1851, will house his priceless art collection plus a hotel, conference center
and ‘other commercial space’.
The Crystal
Palace was conceived as a nontraditional building and it had a strong
technological look. It hosted an exposition dedicated to technology and industry.
Generally, such buildings were not built of iron; instead, they were executed
in stone to be representational. Iron was reserved for industrial buildings
like food markets and urban shopping malls.
Little did anyone know in 1871 that Chicago’s devastating
Great Fire would launch modern architecture and make American architects for
the first time the most advanced in the world. Iron is not fire-resistant and
intense heat makes it soften, bend, and if hot enough, melt. Chicago had been
growing rapidly and there was a need to maximize land use by building
vertically. This was made possible by the invention of the safety elevator.
Young designers abandoned the historicism of revival architecture and designed
abstract structures as they allowed form to follow function. The abstraction of
the Marshall Field Wholesale Store provided an intellectual challenge to the
new generation of Chicago architects. The buildings were massive, made of stone
and highly textured. They were also quite simplified, emphasizing volumetric
forms.
Architecture is the art of designing and
constructing buildings and it has always been closely intertwined with
the history of art, for many reasons. First, many public works, especially
religious buildings, were designed with aesthetics in mind, as well
as functionality. They were built to inspire as well as serve a public
function. Second, in many of these buildings, the exteriors and interiors acted
as showcases for fine art painting such as the Sistine Chapel, or
sculpture like European Gothic cathedrals and other artworks like mosaics
and metalwork. Thirdly, public building programs typically went hand in hand
with the development of visual art, and most major 'arts' movements like the Renaissance.
March 13, 2015 was a
memorable day for me that widened my horizon and directed me in a whole new
direction. It was the spring semester at USF and I was just attending another
one of my classes, basic marketing. However, as soon as I stepped into the big lecture
hall, I noticed more students had attended than usual and I see cameramen in the back
and others gathered near the stage wearing formal suits. 
