I’ve been reading a book called ‘At Home’ by Bill Bryson recently (which I would recommend by the way) and he mentions a certain gardener from history. Sir Joseph Paxton, designed the Crystal Palace which was in London for a short time, and this got me thinking ‘can anyone be an architect, or do what an architect does?’.
Photograph provided by Philip Henry Delamotte, Negretti and Zambra [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
The Crystal Palace was the first large-scale glass building ever built because the plans for it were thought up around the same time that plate-glass was invented, the process was incredibly fast too, as within 9 months of finalizing the plans for the building, it was having its grand opening. For this reason, it was an amazing thing to behold, I mean, it must have been like looking into the future for the people of the time. Looking through a futuristic building with futuristic inventions as it was the venue for ‘The Great Exhibition’ of all the works of industry of all the nations. Victorians would be looking at the beginning of the industrial age, countries would be able to size up the competition based upon what they brought to the exhibition, and people would be able to see the wonders of modern technology (or at least, modern at the time).
The exhibition was partially organised by Prince Albert and opened by Queen Victoria, it was attended by very distinguished people such as Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll, just to name a few.
I wonder how long it would take us to build that building now…it’d probably take nine months just to get planning permission, let alone building regulation approval…
Written by Jade Turney – Building Tectonics Ltd.