Victorian Era

VICTORIAN ERA
(AGE OF REVIVALISM)
Age of revival is also called as Age of innovations. Major developments in construction & planning with
stylistic revival happened during this period which started by end of 18 th century & lasted till later half of
19th century. Industrial revolution was at its beginning. There was rise in population & urbanization
started. Hence there was acute problem of public health. On brighter side growing industrial areas
supported by new transport systems like canals & railways & made building materials like brick & slate,
cheap & easily available.
In addition to conventional buildings like houses & churches, completely new types of buildings such as
railway station, town hall, hospitals, public banks, ware houses, departmental stores, town & country
houses, swimming baths, police stations, fire stations, exhibition halls, university buildings, prisons, art
galleries & many examples of buildings for the transport & industry suddenly started spring up giving
impetus to innovations & new construction technology.
New innovations:-
Steam power generated power for transport & industry. Coal gas invention led to gas lighting in
factories from 1807 onwards & Street lighting followed. Later electrical power was made available.
Telegraph, telephone, wireless telegraphy also started. Cast iron for the columns replaced heavy wood
section & gave more floor space & greater flexibility in design. Combination of cast iron & glass led to
development of novel buildings looking like green house effect. Crystal palace London was important
structure for exhibitions.
Hybrid buildings combining traditional masonry structures & iron & glass became popular in Victorian
era. Wrought iron was being used for its tensile strength for ties, bolts, trusses. Steel was made by
Bessemer process. Rolled sections of steel replaced wrought iron. Portland cement led to invention of
reinforced cement concrete. Advent of reinforced cement concrete could withstand great compressive
& tensile loads. This gave freedom to architects to overcome traditional rectilinear plan. Though
concrete buildings came big way after 1st world war.
New house started having electricity. Public buildings started having central heating. Central heating
made larger windows possible. Plate glass was made by new mechanical process. Large windows made
the interiors look lighter. Great advance in drainage & sanitation by introduction of water closet,
effective main drainage & provision of pure water. Invention of lift made the tall building accessible.
Crystal palace London 1850
It was designed by Sir Joseph Praxton. One of the most remarkable buildings of 19th century Britain built
for the exhibition belonging to the high Victorian Epoch. It was first constructed in Hyde park & later
moved to Sydenham. It had cast iron frame & entire roof was glazed. The cross section of the building
resembled double isled basilica rising in 3 tiers. This was the colossal project of prefabricated building
requiring vast quantities of iron & glass & other materials. The project got completed in 9 months by the
assistance of engineer Sir Charles Fox. The entire structure got destroyed in great fire of 1936.
Neoclassical & Neo Gothic buildings
The original Greek style of Classical Greece was being used for all the public buildings initially with
triangular pediment, orders of architecture on front façade, absolute bisymmetry & formal design with
modern materials. Grandeur without fussiness was the keynote & many buildings of this era thus were
called Neo classical. Later this style was replaced by more flambouyant buildings based on 13 th century
Gothic style of cathedrals being used on civic buildings which were important structures like West
minister Abbey with turrets pinnacles, verticality accentuated. These buildings had asymmetrical plans.
Turrets were actually heating chimneys. Use of iron, lead roof & pipes was the new addition . Some of
these buildings are extremely picturesque. Pugin & Ruskin were responsible for its advent. They wanted
ornament to flow naturally on structures. This style was called Neo Gothic.
ART & CRAFT MOVEMENT
The Arts and Crafts movement is a major English and American aesthetic movement occurring in the last
years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. It was Inspired by the writings of John
Ruskin, it was at its height between approximately 1880 and 1910. The movement began in England as a
reaction to the Industrial Revolution, with the inherent understanding that culture included craft as well
as fine art. This led to the creation of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society in 1887. Members were
William Morris and John Ruskin.
There was economic depression phase in Europe for some time & parallel movement was being run by
Karl Marks & writers like John Ruskin & William Morris criticizing the ill effects of industrialization.
English social & aesthetic movement of latter half of the 19th century i.e. Art & Craft Movement was
aimed to reassert the importance of craftsmanship in the face of mechanization and mass production.
Art & Craft movement gives important to handmade, hand painted, handiwork which had more
refinement & joy of making for artisan. So it is time consuming & very expensive.
Medieval Guilds provided a model for the ideal craft production system. stylized decorative motifs
reminiscent of medieval and Islamic design was introduced which were all hand woven.
William Morris (March 24, 1896) was an English artist, writer, socialist and activist. He was one of the
principal founders of the British Arts and Crafts movement, best known as a designer of wallpaper and
patterned fabrics.
In art and craft movement attempts were made to design buildings rationally rather than to cast them in
bygone moulds & to allow ornament to proceed naturally from structure. The art and craft movement
generated ‘Art Nouveau’ (1892 to 1905) which assumed the consequence of an architectural phase. It is
not possible to draw any strict line between art nouveau and art & craft movement. Both had same
effect upon buildings of all classes. Whatever their types of expression be it gothic, classical,
Romanesque revival.
Asymmetrical plan, first seen only in domestic architecture seems to have been originated with
architects associated with Arts & Crafts movement in England, whose ideas were taken by young Frank
Lloyd Wright in America. He is considered to be a link between Art & Craft movement & Art Nouveau
movement. He got America on the international scene. Art & Craft gave rise to Art Nouveau & played a
major part in arousing a new social conscience among architects.
In 1890 Art & Craft movement connected with international style of Art nouveau. Art & Craft movement
died out or rather transformed by the acceptance of modern industrial methods. People started using
machines to supply good furniture for the masses. It was partly an outcome of the demand, insistent
throughout 19th-century Europe, for a new style of architecture appropriate to an industrial period and
linked to a new building technology. Art Nouveau has usually been treated as an intermediate phase,
between the historicism of the 19th century and the Modernism of the 20th.

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VICTORIAN ERA

Crystal palace London 1850

Neoclassical & Neo Gothic buildings

ART & CRAFT MOVEMENT

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