In what ways does the Crystal Palace (1851) of Joseph Paxton anticipate modern

architecture?

Joseph Paxton built the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park London in 1851 to house the first world
exposition. It was a chance for all countries attending to showcase their most advanced
achievements, but for England specifically, the building also needed to carry the glory of the
British empire. There were 3 main aspects of the Crystal Palace that anticipated modern
architecture.

The first aspect was using offsite prefabrication materials from factories such as iron bars,
wood panels, and glass panels. Once these materials were completed, they were
transported to the site and can be assembled rapidly onsite by low or unskilled workers due
to the simple assembly production procedures. This also saved a lot of land space that is
needed for storage or for wet trade as traditional construction sites needed a place to store
the equipment and materials before everything is completed. Wet trade is also eliminated
because there is no need to use water to make mortar anymore to stick materials together
which also helps simplify the assembly process. This anticipated modern architecture
because mass production of prefabricated factory-finished parts and modular development
became popular in countries all over the world.

Another way in which the Crystal Palace anticipated modern architecture was the use of
cheap materials such as iron, glass, and wood. The use of these low-cost materials was one
of the main reasons why Paxton was given the commission for this project. The low-cost
nature allowed new architecture to be less of a financial burden for countries as well as
allowing entire architectures to become less permanent which means it can be dismantled
easily. The Crystal Palace was dismantled after the event. Many modernist architectures,
such as Le Corbusier, believed that they should take advantage of cheap materials and
simple layouts.

Moreover, the temporary nature of the Crystal Palace also led to another value of modern
architecture that we still aim for and cherish today in the 21st century, and that is
sustainability and being environmentally friendly. The location at which this architecture
was built on contained a lot of trees. Joseph Paxton designed the Crystal Palace in a specific
way to avoid cutting down any trees in the park so that the ground could be returned to its
original use after the building was dismantled. Construction waste is still one of major
concerns of architecture nowadays and many new architectures, such as Wang Shu’s
Ningbo’s Tengtou Pavilion in Shanghai, incorporated layering of old materials to create an
abstraction of a calligraphy, giving it a timeless experience.

To conclude, the Crystal Palace was an extremely forward pointing architecture and was one
of the few new industrial age architectures that were accepted in high society, symbolizing
the great empire of England. In many ways, the Crystal Palace achieved both functionality
and monumentality, which foresaw the development of modern architecture.