STRUCTURAL GLASS FACADES - USC School of Architecture

1.3 Market Forces and the Evolution of Structural Glass
Facades
1.3.1 Early Development
To a notable extent, growth in the architectural glass market has been driven by a chain of
high profile applications with widespread impact, especially starting with the great windows
of the Gothic cathedrals in Europe followed by the transition to a widespread secular use of
glass in buildings and such milestones as Hardwick Hall, 1590-7 by Robert Smythson and
the new wing at Hampton Court, 1689-96 by Sir Christopher Wren. Many if not most of these
milestone projects were made possible or even inspired by advances in glass making
technology, but it is ultimately the architectural manifestations that inspire broader adoption
and use. This is nowhere more obvious than in the great burst of glass conservatories in
19th century Europe and England that so influenced architecture and set the bar for decades
to come in glass structures. Wigginton (1996, pp.36-37) comments that the burgeoning
glass design movement was international, with designers and patrons traversing Europe to
keep an eye on the competition. Rohault de Fleury started the Jardin des Plantes project in
Paris in 1833, and traveled to England to research the state of the art there. Joseph Paxton,
on the other hand, visited the Fleury’s project accompanies by his employer, the Duke of
Devonshire, three years before producing the Great Chatsworth Conservatory. These
projects in turn were the source of inspiration and technological infrastructure necessary for
the realization of the Crystal Palace in 1849.
These conservatory structures along with related structures they inspired, such as some of
the great train halls, represent a contextual technology-based building form, an industrial
architecture born of the technological innovations of the industrial age of the 19 th century.
This architecture directly inspired and informed the Modern Movement starting in the last
decade of the 19 th century that led to the International Style of architecture. The developers
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