Mara L
What is the relationship among architecture, specific problem-solving, and socio-historical context?
QUOTES:
“Rather, Paxton aspired to transform what had originally been a somewhat utilitarian shelter into a building with greater architectural character whilst also implementing a number of alterations to improve its environmental performance.” (249) (Adapting Glasshouses for Human Use: Environmental Experimentation in Paxton's Designs for the 1851 Great Exhibition Building and the Crystal Palace, Sydenham)
“1. Essential characteristics (the end).
a. Great height (relative to buildings).
b. Arrangement (interior) in stories.
c. Utmost space and light (potentially) in
each story.
2. Necessary means.
a. A structural system adequate to achiev-ing the essential characteristics taken together. To date this means skeleton construction. [This must be amended to include flat-slab and box framing, which are not framing systems in the strict sense of serial column-and-beam construction. ]
b. Materials necessary to the structural system, above all steel (iron and reinforced concrete as possible alternatives), and fire-proofing, heat-resisting material.
c. Passenger elevators.
3. Favoring conditions.
a. Economic - such as high value of land; availability of labor and capital; etc.
b. Social - such as living in large groups; enterprise; organization of work; publicity; etc.
c. Technological - such as availability of suitable tools, processes and sources of power; development of plumbing, heating, etc.; growth of engineering; development of the craft of building to a certain point; etc.
d. Psychological - desires (conscious or unconscious) which a tall form can express.
e. Aesthetic - liking for height; preference for the effect of towers related to lower buildings; etc."I” (Skyscraper definition!) (112) (The Invention of the Skyscraper: Notes on Its Diverse Histories)
Notes Document
Bibliographic Information:
Author: Henrik Schoenefedt
Title of article or book: Adapting Glasshouses for Human Use: Environmental Experimentation in Paxton's Designs for the 1851 Great Exhibition Building and the Crystal Palace, Sydenham
Title of publication (if article in magazine, newspaper, or journal): Architectural History Vol. 54
Page numbers (if article in magazine, newspaper, or journal): 233-273
Publisher: SAHGB Publications Limited
Date published: 2011
URL (if applicable): https://www.jstor.org/stable/41418354?seq=1
Paraphrased Notes: Include Page #s
This article calls Paxton a horticulturist (when I looked this up it seems to be a person with great Garden knowledge). (233)
He proposed the idea to build a huge glass building for the Great Exhibition. (233)
One thing was that glass houses had been used for a long time to grow plants but had not been used in this type of way. (233)
The place was meant to hold artifacts and art and have people come to observe.
This was also an issue because glass houses were often very warm and this event was also taking place in summer. (233)
Paxton felt prepared to deal with this because he had built smaller conservatories before in which he wanted to control the temperature.
He had built shading devices, evaporative cooling, and natural ventilation into his design.
One of the main reasons his proposal was chosen was it could be built rather quickly and they didn’t have much time. (233)
Page 234-235 were both diagram pages.
The Great Exhibition Building in Hyde Park is seen as an early form of environmental design. (236)
After the exhibition the Glass Palace was taken apart and between 1852 and 1854 it was rebuilt in Sydenham, South London and was destroyed in a fire in 1936. (236)
In this article they refer to the original Hyde Park building as the “Great Exhibition Building” and the Sydenham one as the “Crystal Palace”. (236)
This is important because there were changes made between the two.
In both his buildings he used environmental principles and technologies of the glass house could be used in the design of large buildings. (236)
Both of these buildings were also some of the first in the Modern Movement. (236)
They were thought of as an innovative way of architecture and showed the possibility of the use of new materials and building methods.
The buildings have often been thought about for their innovations but people have not paid much attention to their environmental history. (236)
This author has also written about why they think the Great Exhibition Building is one of the first attempts to adapt glasshouses for public use. (236)
This article focuses on both of these buildings as well as some other ideas of Paxtons. (236-237)
The Hyde park Building had three tiers that it was made from and can be thought of as a pyramid if cross sectioned. (237)
On page 238 it talks a lot about the roof and has a diagram about the roof. (238)
The need for light from above limited the amount of floors the building could have. This meant that the upper levels were just bridges that the light could reach all of the space.
He also understood the need to not allow the exhibits to be in very humid spaces. (238-240)
To combat this he used internal condensation drains in the roof and side.
He also used a ventilation system to maintain fresh air and make sure it didn’t get too hot.
He used natural ventilation for the most part that didn’t use too much mechanics and had ventilators in the top section of the tiers and at the ground level. He also used S-shaped louvre blades to make sure that rain would not enter the building.
The Ventilators had ninety sections and had to be hand operated.
These ideas were all very important but would not lower the temperature and as it was summer that would be important so he looked into some different ideas.
These included Putting damp canvas in front of the ventilators so that they would blow cooler air and dampen the calico sheets.
His other idea was to use traditional Indian punkhan fans to create a breeze.
They also had a committee that monitored the temperature and they offered to have an exhibition of all different types of thermometer. (240)
One thermometer company tried to instal some thermometers but they were not taken care of properly and exposed to too much sun.
There were two men who were hired to take the temperature every two hours. (240)
They also had three outside thermometers to monitor the outdoor temperature. (240)
There is a table in the paper with some temperature from the building. (241)
They did have some days that The Times reported about where the temperature became much too hot. (241)
There also seemed to be some ventilation problems that led to the building being stuffy and a depletion of oxygen that caused some headaches, drowsiness and even fainting. (241)
(This all happened in June of 1851) and in this same month they called a meeting to think about ways to improve the ventilation. (243)
They thought of two new ways to increase the ventilation, one was to remove some of the vertical glazing and create large openings in the ceiling or the other idea was to create a tunnel from the Serpentine tree and use a fan to blow cool air in.
On page 242 there are a few graphs showing different temperatures from the building. (242)
They ended up removing the glazing on the east side of the building this was helpful for the first level but still led for the upper levels to be stuffy. (later on they also removed the glazing from the North and South sides) (243)
These were put back when the temperature lowered and taken away again when it went up. (243)
There were still complaints so they removed ninety vertical sashes and openings were covered with canvas that could be opened and closed when needed. (243)
Some people feel like the ventilation was actually very impressive for it’s time as many buildings from the time had these issues and they did a better job than many. (243)
The records of temperature from the building show that the temperature often exceeds the outdoor temperature. This shows that as Paxton predicted the work he did to keep a good temperature in the building failed. (243)
There are photos on page 244.
These records also showed that the temperature varied a lot between the different times of day. They thought this was in part due to the change in sunlight. (245)
Owen also noted that the amount of visitors in the building had little impact on the temperature inside the building. (245)
Owen thought that the reason for this extreme heat was due to poor ventilation, lots of sunlight and low wind speed. (245)
He thought that these objects were obstructing the ventilators bottom tier in the North and other objects also led to less air flow. (There is also a diagram that shows some of these things.) (245-246)
The Physician Stephen Ward thought that the building was a laboratory-like setting to observe the impact of ventilation on people can be observed. He thought that better ventilation would not just lower the temperature but would be good for the physical and mental health of visitors. (246)
Before working on the other Crystal Place he came up with some other building ideas one of these was to create an exercise hall for the London Hospital for Disease of the chest. (246)
He wanted it to be a fully glazed structure so that they would have a large amount of natural light.
He also wanted the hall to have good oxygen, with moderate humidity, temperatures for good breathing ability.
There was going to be a duct in the building to bring in air and would be filtered to remove pollution, heated, humidified, and made sure to suit patients. (245)
Using a system of ducts the air would be sent to four ventilation stacks where it would be sent into the building via opening 12 feet above ground.
Some of the air would be recirculated when the rst was exhausted using the ventilators at the back of the glass vault.
This system would be mechanically controlled but involved plants maintaining oxygen levels.
It was thought this sort of system might be used beyond the medical field but to build new public buildings. (245)
His other idea was to turn the Great Exhibition Building into a type of public park building. He thought it could be modified to be a nice place to exercise with lots of plants and would not be impacted by the weather. (247)
This idea was supported by many doctors. It is also important to note that at this time atmospheric pollution was really bad and msde being outdoors not super great.
Both of these buildings would require heating which had not yet been addressed. (247)
He designed a heating system of a huge scale including boilers and a network of hot pipes. (248)
The boiler and chimney would be held in two glazed brick buildings connected by tunnels at each end of the building.
He was not intending with the system to make it super warm but to be slightly warmer than the outdoors, to have plants grow, and a place to exercise without wearing a huge coat.
He also wanted to improve the ventilation for the summer which he thought he could do by increasing the size of the top ventilators. (248)
He cited the work he did in ventilation in the New York City Crystal Palace competition in 1851. (248)
Pictures and diagrams on page 249.
He also proposed an idea to increase ventilation by adding stacks at each corner of the building and with the help of the heat from the furnaces would push air through the building. (250)
He also took some knowledge from his greenhouse days and proposed the idea of removing the ground floor glazing in the summer to increase the airflow. (250)
The glazing would be put back in the winter along with the more controlled ventilation system.
In May of 1852 the Crystal Palace Company bought the Great Exhibition Building and hired Paxton to help reconstruct it on a new site in Sydenham. (250)
He was able to use some of his ideas from the other two buildings just discussed. (250)
The plan was for the building to be a winter garden with plants as well as a permanent art exhibition. (249)
It was actually in a more removed place from the city so it was less polluted. (250)
They removed the shading from the original building. (250)
They also added a sequence of projecting arches.
This made for an almost completely transparent structure.
They also suggested using internal awnings to protect plants that need less sunlight. (251)
Because of less shading, having a good ventilation system in this building was essential. (251)
Using natural ventilation and thermal buoyancy Paxton thought he would be able to keep the building at a good temperature. (251)
He also thought that the roof would maximize solar gains (?). (252)
He thought that hot air would lead to it escaping through high level vents because of the pressure. (252)
They also were planning on having gaps in the floor to admit air when most necessary. This would have due to the pressure of the very hot air. (252)
When the heat is insufficient to cool the building the hot water heating system was going to be used to boost the thermal buoyancy. (252)
Another system of ventilators drew air out of the building into large furnaces that expelled using large pipes and two chimneys. (252)
The work he was doing was using the work he had done in the first building and the Great Stove. (252)
In the Great Stove he used a convection current heating one side and leaving the other cool which created a wind that kept the building warm. (252)
Using stack driven ventilation was very important for the Crystal Palace. (252)
To make sure this building worked better they needed to use geometry of the cross section and the position of the ventilators. They also improved the ventilation apertures to make sure the hot air could escape using the roof quickly. (252)
They also redesigned the transepts to allow for more ventilation using the walls. (252)
They also increased the length of the ventilators. (253)
The increased transepts and higher barrel vault allowed for more space for warm air to rise away from the occupied area. (253)
Page 253 also includes some diagrams of the building which can help you to understand the hot air thing.
The new building was much taller and allowed for much more space for air to escape. (254)
The pan was to have an array of temperature for the needs of the different plants. (255)
The heating system was similar to his design of the under the floor system at Palm House at Kew. (255)
It included fifty miles of warm water pipes under the floor on the main level.
The air working with the pipes was kept in motion using convection.
The pipes were divided into twenty two sections each heated by a boiler.
Gases were sent to the chimneys using the water towers.
Flow and return pipes transported the water and returned it for reheating.
11,000 gallons of water which were sent a mile and driven by thermal buoyancy.
In the summer of 1854 there was monitoring done but it was much different from the horticultural study that was done at the other building. (255)
They used many weather tests in the building (barometers and thermometers) (to measure temperature, humidity, and air density). (255)
He discovered that there work had led to good airflow. (256)
It actually seemed that the temperature was not great and to keep visitors coming they had to have many different events. (256)
These events meant they needed to change parts of the inside environment and monitor it very carefully.
They prepared a Christmas Festival and needed good heating and tested it and it worked but later on it failed and meant they had to put some tropical plants away which they had to continue doing. (257)
They also had to close some of the ventilators with sealed canvas during the winter. (257)
After all of these events they still often got many complaints and people did not love the temperature. (257)
To try to get people more interested they increased the size of the tropical wing and added some smaller rooms that were warmer for events. (257)
In 1859-60 they advertised a warmer temperature for the whole building but as Paxton had warned they had financial problems due to the cost of heating. (257)
Even after all of this planning the temperature was often still very low in the winter. (257)
In 1867 they rearranged the heating pipes under the floor and added curtains between the transept and the nave. These efforts were very beneficial and the temperature was considered pleasant. (258)
At one point a group was using the building for an exhibit and took temperature readings and found that they still seemed rather low. The company argued it would be a huge cost to heat the building completely. (259)
Other studies found that the temperature was hard to control and varied greatly. (259)
During the summer the Handel Festival was held and one very important thing was keeping the building cool and shaded so they added a lot of different fabric shades. (259)
The fact that there was no shading device from the sun was a huge issue. (260)
They first started using some shading techniques in 1855 and 1856 and this did seem to help the building. (260-261)
These shadings were used until 1865 when they decided to cover the building from the outside which seemed to be even more effective. (262)
They also tried to increase ventilation by removing some parts of the glazing and adding hinges to some windows. (262)
The use of all of these things was only slightly effective and in the summer it still got super hot and was extremely sunny in areas. (262)
But some people did argue that the ventilation work did provide a good internal temperature. (263)
They were comparing it to other theaters and public buildings of the time.
It seemed as at some times during the summer it could be extremely hot when others were okay. (263)
It was also said that on cool summer days it could be very cool in the building. All of this shows that the building was controlled by the breezes and the thermal buoyancy. (263)
This all shows that the temperature was very different and had less to do with the people in charge and more to do with outside weather. (264)
There were also some other problem with the ventilation (264)
103 operations would be required to adjust the ventilation in the building. (264)
Some of these problems showed the limit to Victorian passive solar architecture. (264)
This article shows some of the problems with the ventilation and the temperature control. (265)
When he was working on the second building he was able to do some redesign from the first and add some improvements. (265)
The glass without shading was not just for plant growth but also for the building look. (265)
This article does not talk about the impact these buildings had later on in other architecture. (265)
Direct quotes: Include Page #s
“The most visible developments comprised revisions to the proportions of the building and the introduction of a curved barrel vault above the main nave. In addition, Paxton made changes to the heating and ventilating strategy, drawing on the experience of the Hyde Park building in use” (236)
“ By examining these sources, it is possible to arrive at an understanding of the two buildings on their own terms rather than as the precursors to subsequent development.” (236)
“ The management of environmental conditions inside all-glass structures was not an easy task when the only means available were shading, natural ventilation and piped hot water.”
“Paxton sought to provide appropriate lighting and atmospheric conditions for the display and preservation of exhibits; it was also necessary to protect visitors from extreme summer temperatures.” (237)
“Paxton's design thus paid particular attention to matters of ventilation and shading
in order to generate an internal environment that would suit the objects displayed in the Great Exhibition whilst also ensuring comfort for visitors.” (240)
“The study claimed that the outdoor temperature was exceeded by i°F to 9°F on seventy days out of a total of 126 days on which temperatures were recorded, while only on twenty-six days was the average internal temperature lower than outdoors (by between i°F and 4°F). Owen claimed that the mean excess per day was only 1.1 °F, suggesting that the building was performing rather well. This claim, however, is misleading, since it did not take into account the extreme peak temperatures that caused” (244)
“The report, however, did not claim this problem to be a general defect of the original design, but rather stated that the proper operation of the ventilation system had been inhibited by the presence of exhibits and by internal partitions on the ground floor.” (244)
“In summer 1851, Paxton wrote that he considered the building at Hyde Park to be only a first step in his long-term effort to exploit the environmental possibilities of the glasshouse as a habitable environment for human beings. He stressed that his main interest had thus far been the provision of an adequate environment for the display and preservation of exhibits; improvements in thermal comfort could now follow.” (245)
“Paxton believed that plants and animals mutually maintained oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, with animals consuming the oxygen that was produced by the plants and in return exhaling carbon dioxide to feed the plants.” (246)
“Rather, Paxton aspired to transform what had originally been a somewhat utilitarian shelter into a building with greater architectural character whilst also implementing a number of alterations to improve its environmental performance.” (249)
“Newspapers reported that the ventilators and the hot water pipes formed one large arterial system controlling the movement, admission, and expulsion of air.” (252)
“It was reported that Paxton spent three hours a day for three months planning an elaborate heating apparatus with the assistance of John Henderson and other specialists” (255)
“ In Practical Ventilation and Warming the engineer Joseph Constantine argued that the heating system was incapable of keeping the large volume of air at a uniform temperature, since the heated air, once it had risen to the top of the building, cooled quickly due to the high thermal conductivity of the large glass surfaces of the roof. Strong downdraught currents of cold air displaced the lighter, freshly heated air on the ground floor.” (259)
“The operations required to exploit the passive solar principles behind Paxton's strategy were almost impossible to implement in practice, since they required swift responses to changes in the weather. To avoid volatile temperature swings, the management had to regulate solar gains in order either to increase or lower the indoor temperature to the desired level. While the ventilators were designed to permit easy and swift closing and opening, newspaper accounts suggest that they were not adjusted very frequently, usually only on extremely hot summer days or in preparation for special events. The lack of adjustment was probably due to the time and labour required.” (264)
“It would be wrong to describe the Sydenham building as the outcome of a straightforward and purely functional design approach; its design was not solely motivated by environmental concerns. Indeed, it was difficult to reconcile the
requirements of comfort with the desire to achieve a building of architectural character.” (265)
Summary of Source (2-4 sentences)
This article talks about a lot of stuff from the first Crystal Palace to the second building and some other buildings Paxton had ideas for. The most important thing for these buildings was having good ventilation and temperature control.
Does this help me answer my question? Why or why not?
YES!!! This had so much good information about the design of the Crystal Palace.
Lingering Questions
More information?
Connection to other buildings
I am not sure?
Connections to other sources
It seems to be connected to the source about greenhouses a little.