Architecture of the Industrial Revolution

(1750 1850/1870)

In this era the architecture and the art turned to the past, to the previous styles using them in
a new approach. This period began in the mid 18th century(1750) and ended in about the
second decade of the twentieth century. The period was divided into different eras, but these
periodizations were different in different countries and eras.
The period 1750 to 1870 was an era of changes and architectural evolution on all fronts.

Revolution in the

The period from 1750 to 1910 that we will study is a very difficult period. What is
common in this era that the architects used the architectural details and motifs of the earlier
historical styles.

The Industrial Revolution, which began in England about 1760, led to radical changes at
every level of civilization throughout the world. The growth of heavy industry brought a flood
of new building materialssuch as cast iron, steel, and glasswith which architects and
engineers devised structures hitherto undreamed of in function, size, and form.

Disenchantment with baroque, with rococo, and even with neo-Palladianism turned late 18th-
century designers and patrons toward the original Greek and Roman prototypes. Selective
borrowing from another time and place became fashionable.

Greek Architecture took popularity in the united states, Roman Architecture took hold in
france

The Industrial Revolution, which began inEnglandabout 1760, led to radical changes
at every level of civilization throughout the world. The growth of heavy industry
brought a flood of new building materialssuch as cast iron, steel, and glasswith
which architects and engineers devised structures hitherto undreamed of in function,
size, and form.

Disenchantment with baroque, with rococo, and even with neo-Palladianism turned
late 18th-century designers and patrons toward the original Greek and Roman
prototypes. Selective borrowing from another time and place became fashionable. Its
Greek aspect was particularly strong in the young United States from the early years
of the 19th century until about 1850. New settlements were given Greek names
Syracuse, Ithaca, Troyand Doric and Ionic columns, entablatures, and pediments,
mostly transmuted into white-painted wood, were applied to public buildings and
important town houses in the style called Greek revival.

In France, the imperial cult of Napoleon steered architecture in a more Roman

direction, as seen in the Church of the Madeleine (1807-1842), a huge Roman
temple in Paris. French architectural thought had been jolted at the turn of the
century by the highly imaginative published projects of tienne-Louis Boulle and
Claude Nicholas Ledoux. These men were inspired by the massive aspects of
Egyptian and Roman work, but their monumental (and often impractical)
compositions were innovative, and they are admired today as visionary architects.

The most original architect in England at the time was Sir John Soane; the museum
he built as his ownLondonhouse (1812-1813) still excites astonishment for its
inventive romantic virtuosity. Late English neoclassicism came to be seen as elitist;
thus, for the new Houses of Parliament the authorities insisted on Gothic or Tudor
Revival. The appointed architect, Sir Charles Barry, was not a Gothic expert, but he
called into consultation an architect who wasA. W. N. Pugin, who became
responsible for the details of this vast monument (begun 1836). Pugin, in a short and
contentious career, made a moral issue out of a return to the Gothic style. Other
architects, however, felt free to select whatever elements from past cultures best
fitted their programsGothic for Protestant churches, baroque for Roman Catholic
churches, early Greek for banks, Palladian for institutions, early Renaissance for
libraries, and Egyptian for cemeteries.

In the second half of the 19th century dislocations brought about by the Industrial
Revolution became overwhelming. Many were shocked by the hideous new urban
districts of factories and workers housing and by the deterioration of public taste
among the newly rich. For the new modes of transportation, canals, tunnels, bridges,
and railroad stations, architects were employed only to provide a cultural veneer.

The Crystal Palace (1850-1851; reconstructed 1852-1854) in London, a vast but

ephemeral exhibition hall, was the work of Sir Joseph Paxton, a man who had
learned how to put iron and glass together in the design of large greenhouses. It
demonstrated a hitherto undreamed-of kind of spatial beauty, and in its carefully
planned building process, which included prefabricated standard parts, it
foreshadowed industrialized building and the widespread use of cast iron and steel.

Also important in its innovative use of metal was the great tower (1887-1889) of
Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel in Paris. In general, however, the most gifted architects of
the time sought escape from their increasingly industrialized environment by further
development of traditional themes and eclectic styles. Two contrasting but equally
brilliantly conceived examples are the sumptuous Paris Opera (1861-1875) by
Charles Garnier and Bostons grandiose Trinity Church (1872-1877) by Henry
Hobson Richardson .

Taxes against glass, windows and bricks were repealed which saw a new interest in
using these building materials. Factory made plate glass was developed and
complex designs in iron grillwork were a popular decoration for the classical and
Gothic buildings. There were also terracotta manufacturing improvements, which
allowed for more of its use in construction. Steel skeletons were covered with
masonry and large glass skylights were popular.

Improvements to the iron making process encouraged the building of bridges and
other structures. Large indoor open spaces were now made possible with the use of
strong iron framed construction; this was ideal for factories, museums and train
stations. The Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Exhibition in Paris was a dramatic
demonstration by the French of their mastery of this new construction technology. To
the architect-engineer belongs a new decorative art, such as ornamental bolts, iron
corners extending beyond the main line, a sort of Gothic lacework of iron. We find
that to some extent in the Eiffel Tower.

But it was heavily criticized by some architects and artists who scorned it as an
example of the blackness of industry and saw it as blight on the citys skyline.

The Crystal Palace created to enclose the Great Exhibition of 1851 inEnglandwas a
glass and iron showpiece, which dazzled the millions of visitors who passed through
its doors. Built by Joseph Paxton within six months, its design mimicked the
greenhouses that were his customary stock in trade. It was spacious enough to
enclose mature existing trees within its walls.
There was some rejection of the new Industrial Revolution architecture and its
emphasis on classical construction, Palladian styles and Victorian gingerbread
houses; some impressive Gothic revival architecture was commissioned instead.
Notable examples were the British Parliament Buildings with their pointed spires and
suggestion of strength and moral values. Strawberry Hill, built after the mid-
eighteenth century, seems patterned after a Gothic castle and though it combined
some novel construction materials which reflected strong spiritual and religious
sentiments in its design.

Regarding architecture of this era, John Ruskin, a co-founder of the Arts and Crafts
movement toward simplicity argued, You should not connect the delight which you
take in ornament with that which you take in construction or in usefulness. They have
no connection, and every effort that you make to reason from one to the other will
blunt your sense of beauty. Remember that the most beautiful things in the world
are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.

Beginning in the 18th century the Industrial Revolution made fundamental changes in agriculture,
manufacturing, transportation and housing. Architecture changed in response to the new
industrial landscape. Prior to the late 19th century, the weight of a multistory building had to be
supported principally by the strength of its walls. The taller the building, the more strain this
placed on the lower sections. Since there were clear engineering limits to the weight such load-
bearing walls could sustain, large designs meant massively thick walls on the ground floors, and
definite limits on the building's height.

Forged iron and milled steel began to replace wood, brick and stone as primary materials for
large buildings. This change is encapsulated in the Eiffel Tower built in 1889. Standing on four
huge arched legs, the iron lattice tower rises narrowly to just over 1000 feet high. When I visited
the tower, I was surprised to find a wooden railing at the top (supported by iron bars) and carved
with innumerable names! The Eiffel Tower not only became an icon for France but for industry
itself heralding a new age in materials, design and construction methods.
In America, the development of cheap, versatile steel in the second half of the 19th century
helped change the urban landscape. The country was in the midst of rapid social and economic
growth that made for great opportunities in architectural design. A much more urbanized society
was forming and the society called out for new, larger buildings. By the middle of the 19th century
downtown areas in big cities began to transform themselves with new roads and buildings to
accommodate the growth. The mass production of steel was the main driving force behind the
ability to build skyscrapers during the mid 1880s.
Steel framing was set into foundations of reinforced concrete, concrete poured around a grid of
steel rods (re-bar) or other matrices to increase tensile strength in foundations, columns and
vertical slabs. (See image at right.)
The people in Midwestern America felt less social pressure to conform to the ways and styles of
the architectural past. By assembling a framework of steel girders, architects and builders could
suddenly create tall, slender buildings with a strong steel skeleton. The rest of the building's
elements - the walls, floors, ceilings, and windows were suspended from the load-bearing steel.
This new way of constructing buildings, so-called column-frame construction, pushed them up
rather than out. Building design in major urban centers now placed a premium on vertical space.
Like the flying buttress of the 14th century, the steel weight-bearing frame allowed not just for
taller buildings, but much larger windows, which meant more daylight reaching interior spaces.
Interior walls became thinner creating more usable floor space.
Because steel framing had no precedent, its use would rewrite the rules of design and
engineering of large buildings and along with them a new formal aesthetic. Architect Louis
Sullivan's twelve-story Prudential Building in Buffalo New York is an early example of column
framing. Built in 1894, its tall, sleek brick veneer walls, large windows and gently curved top
pediment ushers in a new century with the modern style of the skyscraper.
For all of its new technology and design innovations, The Prudential Building still holds some
forms from the past. A large arch hovers over the main entrance and the brick faade has
extensive ornamentation.