THE EXPOSITIONS

History of Architecture- V Crystal palace

Lecture – VIII Eiffel Tower

World Expo

THE EXPOSITIONS Assignment

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS World Expos have long been important in advancing architectural innovation and
discourse. Many of our most beloved monuments were designed and constructed
specifically for world’s fairs, only to remain as iconic fixtures in the cities that host them.

Throughout history, each new Expo offered architects an opportunity to present

THE EXPOSITIONS radical ideas and use these events as a creative laboratory for testing bold
innovations in design and building technology.

Crystal palace World’s fairs inevitably encourage competition, with every country striving to put their
best foot forward at almost any cost.

Eiffel Tower Many masterworks such as Mies van

der Rohe’s German Pavilion (better
known as the Barcelona Pavilion) for
World Expo the 1929 Barcelona International
Exposition are so wholeheartedly
devoted to their conceptual approach
that they could only be possible in the
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context of an Exposition pavilion.
Simple form and Extravagant
materials used.
Steel frame with glass and polished
stone

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS The Great Exhibition; London, 1851

•A “Great Exhibit of the Works of Industry of All Nations”

•The building was the epitome of England’s industry, vision, determination, wealth,
technical knowledge, and powers of production.
•The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations was the first
international exhibition of manufactured goods, and it had an incalculable effect on
the course of art and design throughout the Victorian Age and beyond.
• It was modelled on successful French national exhibitions, but it was the first to open
its doors to the world.

Prince Albert's Project.

 The Exhibition's chief proponent and cheerleader was Prince Albert.
 The Prince Consort envisaged a self-financing event, and encouraged a reluctant
government to set up a Royal Commission to oversee the exhibition, to be held in
Hyde Park, London.
 The Commission called for architectural submissions for the exhibition hall, which was
to cover an area of over 700,000 square feet.
 Over 200 submissions were received, but the Commission rejected them all in favour
of its own plan, which was universally reviled as ugly and expensive.
 This latter objection proved all too true, for when the Commission called for tenders for
the materials alone, they were appalled to learn it would cost up to 150,000 pounds.

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS
Paxton's Crystal Palace
Then another plan surfaced, by Joseph Paxton. Initially the Commission rejected
Paxton's plan, but he took out newspaper ads to raise public support, and the
Commissioners were forced to bow to public pressure.
THE EXPOSITIONS Paxton's innovative design called for a glass and steel structure, essentially a giant
greenhouse, made of identical, interchangeable pieces, thus lowering materials cost
considerably.
Crystal palace Paxton's design was adopted, with the addition of a dome to allow space for some very
tall trees in Hyde Park.
The main aim of The Great Exhibition was for Great Britain to show off, demonstrating its
Eiffel Tower inventiveness and modern industrial designs and ideas to the rest of the world.

Jump testing.
Rival architects claimed that the building was unsafe, and would collapse from the
World Expo
resonance set up by the feet of large crowds.
So an experiment was set up.
A model structure was built, and workmen walked back and forth in time and then
Assignment haphazardly.
Then they jumped up in the air together.
No problem. As a final test, army troops were called in to march about. The test building
passed the trial, so work proceeded on the real thing.

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
  The main building was 1848 feet long and 408 wide, enclosing 772,784 square feet
THE EXPOSITIONS (19 acres), an area six times that of St. Paul's Cathedral
 The structure contained 4000 tons of iron, 900,000 feet of glass, and 202 miles of
sash bars to hold it all together.
 The Crystal Palace featured the first public toilet cubicles. The inventor of these,
George Jennings.
THE EXPOSITIONS
 Highly successful French Industrial Exposition : indeed, its prime motive was for Britain
to make "clear to the world its role as industrial leader".
Crystal palace
 The Crystal Palace demonstrated incredible engineering feats and was noted for the
largest amount of glass ever seen in building of the time.
 With its open interiors and natural lighting, the Crystal Palace served as an optimal
Eiffel Tower space for exhibits by taking advantage of a self-supporting shell resting on slim iron
columns and reducing the exhibition’s operating costs by eschewing any need for
artificial lighting.
World Expo

Assignment

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS

Exterior:
THE EXPOSITIONS

Crystal palace

Eiffel Tower

World Expo
Modular, Hierarchical
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September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS

Cast Iron in Buildings:

THE EXPOSITIONS
 1796 - Shrewesbury Warehouse
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 1809 - cast iron dome in Paris
 1849 - cast iron facades by J. Bogardus
 1851 - Crystal Palace
Eiffel Tower
 1855 - Bessemer Process for steel making
 1884 - Home Insurance Building, Chicago
World Expo

Assignment

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS
THE UNIVERSELLE EXPOSITION OF 1889

THE EXPOSITIONS

Crystal palace

Eiffel Tower

World Expo

Assignment

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS THE UNIVERSELLE EXPOSITION OF 1889
The Exposition Universelle of 1889 was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 6 May to 31
October 1889.

It was held during the year of the 100th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, an event
THE EXPOSITIONS considered symbolic of the beginning of the French Revolution.
A 300 meter high marvel of iron by Gustav Eiffel.
Serve as the entrance arch to the fair.
Crystal palace

Eiffel Tower

World Expo

Assignment

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS
The Eiffel Tower
 The supreme symbol for the 1889 Expo was obviously the Eiffel Tower.
 However, the Tower was not really liked by the Parisians.
 A petition from 47 famous artists called it a useless and monstrous building.
 They demanded that work should be stopped on the Tower.

An unworthy monument.
 People thought that the Eiffel Tower had no place on the Parisian landscape beside
other, more noble, monuments.
 Expo 1889 introduced a important innovation: the use of electricity
 Bridges
 Gardens
 Pavilions
 And the Eiffel Tower were all illuminated.  Number of visitors :
28 000 000
 The Eiffel Tower was literally enveloped in light rays
 Number of exhibitors :
 It had a very powerful light at its top. 61 722

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS Gustav Eiffel
 Mr. Eiffel had an office at the top of the tower, where he went to work every day.
 He had an immense pride in the project, which lasted for the rest of his life.

La Galerie des Machines

This is “la galerie des machines ”, which no longer exists, for it was demolished in
1910-1911.

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS
• Later known as the Montreal Biosphere,
Fuller’s dome had far-reaching influence
as a prototype for a new trend in
construction.
• The structure is made up of steel and
acrylic cells and includes a complex
shading system to control internal
temperatures.
• Visitor’s circulated through four themed
platforms divided into seven levels and
accessed by the longest escalator ever
built at the time.
• Additionally, the pavilion's futuristic look
was exaggerated by the Minirail monorail
Buckminster Fuller's Dome that ran through the pavilion.
Montreal Expo, 1967 • Unfortunately, the building fell victim to a
devastating fire in May 1976 in which all
of the building’s transparent acrylic
sections were destroyed.
• In 1990 the property was purchased and
transformed into an environment museum
which continues to occupy the building to 1964 New York World’s Fair
this day.

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS

THE EXPOSITIONS

Crystal palace

Eiffel Tower

World Expo

Assignment

Habitat 67, or simply Habitat, is a model community and housing complex

in Montreal, Canada, designed by Canadian architect Moshe Safdie. It was originally
conceived as his master's thesis in architecture at McGill University and then built as a
pavilion for Expo 67, the World's Fair held from April to October 1967.
September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS • Similar to many other world’s fairs,
the 1962 exposition focused on
themes of space, science and
technology and the future, and its
theme was heavily influenced by the
THE EXPOSITIONS ongoing Space Race at the time.
• The 1962 Century 21 Exposition in
Seattle is one of the relatively few
Crystal palace expositions in history to make a profit,
and some even credit it with
revitalizing the city’s economy and
encouraging its cultural development
Eiffel Tower
in this way.
• Most notably, the fair resulted in
the construction of the Space
World Expo Needle and the Alweg Monorail,
which is still running today.
• Public infrastructural moves such as
Assignment this were made possible in the
context of showcasing the latest
technology for the exhibition, but also
resulted in a dramatic infrastructural
improvement for the life of the city. [5]

Seattle World's Fair, 1962

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS

THE EXPOSITIONS

Crystal palace

Eiffel Tower

World Expo

Assignment

German Pavilion at the 1967 International and Universal Exposition in Montreal

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS

by Kisho Kurokawa
With a theme of “Progress and
Harmony for Mankind,” the
Osaka World Expo in 1970 was
the first World’s Fair to be held in
Japan and represented a desire to
embrace modern technology and
create the potential for higher
standards of living.
This expo came at a particular
progressive time in Japan’s history
after having experienced an
extremely rapid period of
development in the 1960s and
furthering the development of
metabolism.
It is also one of the best attended
expositions in history with over 64
million visitors.

Pavilion at the 1970 Osaka World Exposition, Kisho Kurokawa architect

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS

Expo Milano 2015

Clearly World Expositions have had
remarkable impacts on the world of
architecture and building
technology, and many hope that
Expo Milano 2015 will continue this
tradition with its theme “Feeding the
Planet, Energy for Life.”
Although traditional building materials
and technology in architecture have
come a long way since the first
World’s Fair, there is still plenty of
room for innovation in regards to
responding to the urgent
environmental needs of today.
This year’s expo recognizes this fact
and offers architects opportunities to
continue to explore notions of
sustainability and how we engage
with our planet.

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS

THE EXPOSITIONS

Crystal palace

References
"The Great Exhibition" on the British Library Website
Eiffel Tower
"The Eiffel Tower during the 1889 Exposition Universelle" on La Tour Eiffel
Website
World Expo
"The Architectural Legacy of Barcelona’s World’s Fairs", The Frailest Thing, May
30 2012.
Alan Taylor, "1964: The New York World's Fair", The Atlantic, June 2 2014
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"The Century 21 Exhibition" on ExpoMuseum.com
"Expo '67" on Historica Canada
Alison Furuto, "Osaka World Expo 1970", ArchDaily December 3 2010
"Brief intro to World Expo 2010 Shanghai China" on Expo2010 Website

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.
 THE EXPOSITIONS

World Expos have long been important in advancing

architectural innovation and discourse” – Discuss with
THE EXPOSITIONS
specific examples
Crystal palace

Eiffel Tower

World Expo

Assignment

September 2016 ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE –( LATE 18TH. TO EARLY 20TH. CENTURY ) Ar. Chandika Ahir, Asstt. Prof. GCAD, Sonipat.