The Development of Modern Architecture: The Use of Metal

The Industrial Revolution made possible new forms of architecture, although some critics might call these examples engineering rather than art. Also Enlightenment beliefs in the practical uses of science encouraged these developments. The development of new kinds of architecture was advanced by the use of iron (wrought and cast iron) and later steel. In about 1855 Henry Bessemer invented a new method of making steel in quantity so that it could be used profitably for large building components. Also important in the appearance of new architecture was the increased used of glazing in 19th century buildings; metal can hold larger panels of glass than wood could. Metal had, of course, been used in small quantities much earlier--as dowells to hold drums of columns together in Greek architecture, for example. Romans used metal braces in the Colosseum. And Gothic stained glass windows were enclosed in metal frames. But metal came into prominent use at end of 18th century, especially in bridges.
Earlier bridges had been made of stone or brick. The bridge below, 100 feet above the Severn River in England, borrows from Roman bridge design (based on the roman arch), even though it is made of cast iron--the first bridge to use this material. Note, too, the decorative treatment of the iron supports. Thomas F. Pritchard (1723-77) and Abraham Darby III (1750-89), Coalbrookdale Bridge, England, 1777-79
Later designers used cable to build suspension bridges. First they used wrought iron chain, then drawn wire cables. The deservedly famous Brooklyn Bridge is a late example of this type. It has a 6000 foot road bed supported by steel-wire cables. Masonry towers, 276' above the water, allude to Gothic cathedrals, or perhaps to Roman triumphal arches. John A. Roebling (1806-69) and Washington A. Roebling (1837-1926), Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, 1869-83
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While bridges have been erected for centuries (so the design was not new), there was no precedent for railroad stations. By the 1830's new designs had evolved, usually a waitingroom in masonry with the shed in iron and glass. Note the decorative ironwork below. Lewis Cubitt (1799-1883), King's Cross Railroad Station, London, 1850-52
The American James Bogardus (1800-74) systematized mass production of cast iron elements so a whole building could prefabricated. Iron was precast in small, identical, easily assembled units. With these precast modules a building could be built in as little as two months. His units were usually ordered for warehouses and retail stores. Oddly, even though this is a "modern" construction method, the units he designed often had classical elements like columns and pilasters. Below: a drawing of a Bogardus building; an elevation (which could be expanded in either direction with identical modules); a cast-iron pre-fabricated building in Omaha Nebraska (1884)
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Although iron and glass had been used extensively in greenhouses, the triumph of metal and glass construction was the building below: Joseph Paxton (1801-65), Crystal Palace erected at Hyde Park, London in 1850-51 for the first ever international World's Fair.

	Construction using wrought iron elements based on a 4 foot module The construction of this huge building took about 6 months, which was almost miraculous then and made possible by the use of pre-fabricated modules of cast iron and glass. The building covered 18 acres with almost a million square feet of exhibit space. It had a central nave 72 feet wide and a barrel vault 135 feet high. The interior contained galleries for exhibits from around the world. Unfortunately, given its similarity to a greenhouse, it presented problems of climate control.
The Opening of the Great 1851 Exhibition by Queen Victoria; the Transept (strategically placed to cover the tall trees on the site); the foreign exhibition galleries
Metal and glass construction became common all over Europe and the United States--for department stores and shopping malls. One of the most famous is the Galleria by Giuseppe Mengoni (1829-77) built between 1865-77 in Milan. Located across the plaza from the Milan Cathedral, it echoes that church in its cruciform plan. It has a skylit "nave" and "transept" with a central dome of glass.
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923), an engineer-architect who designed bridges, exhibition buildings with exposed metal work, and even the interior armature for the Statue of Liberty, received the commission for the so-called Eiffel Tower for the Universal Exhibition of 1889.
	both MAS	Built of wrought iron, it is 984 feet tall, the tallest structure in the world until the Empire State Building was erected several decades later. This metal skeletal structure of 15,000 metal parts has both rectilinear and curvilinear ornamentation in iron. (See also this site for additional information and images.)
Most of the former examples were designed by engineers, not really architects. Metal came to be used for permanent architectural purposes, not just utilitarian structures.
	Henri Labrouste (1801-75) Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris, 1838-50 The outside of this beautiful library is masonry, but the inside uses the modern, then "high-tech" material, decorative iron work. The ceiling is two barrel-vaults ( a form that goes back to the Romans) with lacy cast iron "ribbing" in a floral pattern. Slender Corinithian columns can be supportive because they are strong metal. The columns are supported on tall concrete pedestals.
		Henri Labrouste (1801-75) Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1854-75 The slender columns in this reading room in France's national library (parallel to the Library of Congress) are gracefully designed metal. Skylights complete the effect. Here metal and glass are ART!
Only with these developments in the use of iron and steel could modern cities have been built. With the development of concrete and later reinforced concrete other kinds of structures were possible. Another invention, the elevator, made multi-storied buildings practical. Click here to continue the story of the development of modern architecture