Lecture 11:

The Second Industrial Revolution

1850 - 1914

Arc. Kofi OWUSU, Dr. Maria PANTA, Dr. Ayisha BAFFOE-ASHUN

ARC 152 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE, Semester II

5 July 2022

V
The Second Industrial Revolution (1850-1914, USA
& Western Europe):
What we think of today as industrial architecture is
largely based on buildings from the Second
Industrial Revolution, which was brought about by
the introduction of new building materials such as
steel and concrete.

These advancements transformed industrial

facilities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. These new materials helped to make
industrial structures more efficient and safer for
workers.
Impact of the industrial revolution on society
and architecture and emergence of steel and
concrete as ‘new’ materials.
The development of large scale iron
production resulted in large amount of
iron making its way in the building
construction.
The First Industrial Revolution took place in
England between 1750 and 1840. Early
industrial facilities were built to process
materials like silk, cotton, and brass. They were
built as efficiently as possible using the
building materials of the day: lumber and
masonry.
Introduction
• What was revolutionary about the Industrial
Revolution?

• It changed the way people worked!

• The Industrial Revolution is the era when power-

driven machinery was developed.
 Key Phases:
•Water and steam power to mechanize
production (1800s)
•Electric power enabling mass production (late
1800s to early 1900s)
•Industrialization and falling trade barriers
(1900s)
Developments
 Mass production of goods
 Increased numbers of goods
 Increased diversity of goods produced
 Development of factory system of production
 Rural-to-urban migration
 People left farms to work in cities
 Development of capitalism
 Financial capital for continued industrial growth
 Development and growth of new socio-economic classes
 Working class, bourgeoisie, and wealthy industrial class
 Commitment to research and development
 Investments in new technologies
 Industrial and governmental interest in promoting invention, the
sciences, and overall industrial growth
Industrial developments from the
1950’s brought about the following:

Explosive increase of population

World-wide trend of urbanization

Inconsiderate consumption of non-
renewable resources

Waste and lack of care for renewable

resources
Skyscrapers, office blocks,
etc.
 Skyscrapers, office blocks,
etc.

Explosive increase of
population
 Impact of Urbanization
Increased
Overcrowding of
demand for
people
resources

slums Urbanization

air Increased disposal

pollution of waste
Urbanization
• During the Industrial Revolution, people moved
from villages and towns into cities
• Urbanization: movement of people to cities
• Garbage filled overcrowded city streets and disease
spread
 City Life Changes
New Cityscapes
 City layouts will change with industrialization.
 Paris will tear down old medieval tenements and streets and build
new public building and wide streets
 In America, the rich will live outside of town. The poor will live in
slums near the city center in order to be near the factories
Safety, Sanitation, and Skyscrapers
 Cities become safer by adding electric lights, organizing police
forces and firefighters
 They become healthier by building sewage systems
 In Paris 1852 there was 87 miles of sewer. By 1911 there will be
more than 750 miles
 Steel will help make tall buildings in 1900.
 One family homes will be torn down in order to build multistory
multifamily buildings
 City Life Changes
Life in the Slums
 Urban life will remain harsh for the poor
 Families could be crammed into a single room with no ventilation
and little light
 Most buildings did not have running water
 This will lead to disease
 Illness or unemployment could leave a family homeless
 High rate of crime and alcoholism
The Lure of City Life
 City life will attract people
 They will come because of work or excitement of a city
 They will come for entertainment like music halls, opera houses,
theaters, sporting events.
 City Life Changes

This aerial view shows Paris around 1870, after being redesigned by Georges
Haussmann.
The development of large scale iron
production resulted in large amount of
iron making its way in the building
construction.
 Increases in Coal and Iron
Production, 1770-1800
• Coal production doubled
• 6 million to 12 million tons

• Pig iron production increased 250%

• 1800 – 130,000 tons

• Great Britain produced as much coal and iron as every

other country combined
 Bessemer Process and Steel
 Prior to the Industrial Revolution, steel was difficult
to produce and expensive
 Henry Bessemer and William Kelly invent a new way
of making steel, which is lighter, stronger, and
cheaper than iron, 1856
 Brought on the “Age of Steel”
• Steel will be used in the making of buildings,
railroads
• Steel output for countries will skyrocket
• Steel is the most important metal used over the past
150+ years
• Use of other metals to produce various types of steel
 Industrialization
• European cities go through a period
of urbanization because of the
factory system
• This caused living conditions to be
terrible
• Sickness was widespread (cholera)
• Average worker spent 14hours,
6days
• Dangerous industry-coal mines
 What were the best things about the Industrial Revolution?
Products were cheaper.
Towns and cities grew larger.
The increase in knowledge about how
things worked and the utilisation of new
technology eventually led to
Britain became very
improvements in housing and working
wealthy but less people
conditions for everyone.
lived in the countryside.

The Great Exhibition in London

– 1851 showed off the great
inventions and advances that
were taking place at the time.
Picture hand drawn by Rachel Wood on behalf of Saltaire Collection
 Activity
£1 50
p
Towns and cities
grew
Products were cheaper

Britain became richer.

What were the best things
about the Industrial Revolution?

Working and living conditions

eventually Improved.
Ideas and inventions
The industrial revolution gave rise to different
typologies of architecture and technological
innovations guided construction techniques.

Modern Architecture:
Glass, Steel, Reinforced concrete

Modernity, the Modern Era

Devoid of any of the ornamental details
that had previously created a sense of
familiarity with, works of art and
architecture.
Ca D’Oro Building, Glasgow, Scotland
by John Honeyman, 1872
Guggenheim Museum,
New York

by Frank Lloyd Wright

1956 - 1959
Villa Savoye, Paris, France

by Le Corbusier
1928 - 1931
Fallingwater,
Pennsylvania, USA

by Frank Lloyd Wright

1935
Chapel of Notre-Dame Du
Haut, Ronchamp, France

by Le Corbusier
1955
Pavillon Le Corbusier, Zurich,
Switzerland

by Le Corbusier
1967
Unité d'habitation, Marseille,
France

by Le Corbusier
1940
Le Corbusier Plan
Voisin for Paris, 1955
Study of the
Acropolis Axial Syste
by Constantinos
Doxiadis (1913-1975),
Doxiadis Associates

Architectural SPACE
in Ancient Greece
Study of the
Acropolis Axial Syste
by Constantinos
Doxiadis,
Doxiadis Associates

PLASTICITY

OBLIQUE
Barcelona Pavilion, Spain

by Mies Van Der Rohe

1929

(The German Pavilion for the

1929 International Exposition
in Barcelona, Spain)
Home Insurance Building ,
Chicago, USA

by William Le Baron Jenney

1884

The first tall building to be supported both

inside and outside by a fireproof
structural steel frame, though it also
included reinforced concrete. It is
considered the world's first skyscraper.
The Seagram Building, New
York City

by Mies Van Der Rohe

1958
THANK YOU