The Modern City: Steel, Iron, Glass, and Concrete

The Modern City: Steel, Iron, Glass, and Concrete

The Industrial Revolution, that had started at the end of the 18th century, continued to develop relentlessly during the 19th century. This caused important consequences on the technological progress of the period, in particular on building technologies. The new furnaces projected for foundries were able to produce a calorific power that was so high that it became possible to bend iron. This satisfied the material needs that emerged from the new types of architectural projects. Starting from the middle of the 19th century architects were able to realise ambitious projects thanks to new materials such as cast iron, steel, glass, and concrete. Masonry structures looked outdated because they represented forms of antiquated thought and style. The architect, as in the past, was the key person for designing the projects, but now the engineer became the essential figure for making all the necessary static calculations in relation to the materials used in the new structures. The École Polytechnique had been founded in Paris at the end of the 18th century and it was there where technicians were trained to work for the army. They were the first engineers who were later employed to project railways, roads, and bridges. The new architectural techniques proved to be suitable and economically convenient for great public buildings, like railway stations, bridges, towers, viaducts, exhibition palaces, museums, and banks Consequently the urban landscape changed profoundly.
Modern town planning was conditioned by many factors. Some of these factors included the industrial development and the rapid changes in the trading and financial sectors that made important European towns expand and increase their populations. The new, huge, representative buildings built in the capital cities became hubs for political life and bureaucratic activities.
The historical centres, with their ancient palaces and new monumental buildings, were surrounded by residential districts, with beautiful buildings and parks where the nobles and bourgeoisie lived. Factories were transferred to the outskirts in industrial areas. There, industrial workers continued to live in unregulated, ugly suburbs, with overcrowded housing, sanitation problems, including a lack of water supply and poor sewerage systems. The demand for sanitation improvements and social equity led to a slow implementation of regulatory laws, which set minimal standards for the construction of housing.

London, a Modern Cathedral

The most advanced industrial city in Europe was London, which was the (1.)                                 of the evolution of modern society. There, in 1851, the First World’s Fair was inaugurated, with the title of “Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations”. For this event an extraordinarily majestic building was constructed. It was completely realised in (2.)                                 and metal, and for this reason it was called the Crystal Palace.
In 1850 an international competition to design the palace was held. The (3.)                                 architect Joseph Paxton, an expert on greenhouses, won it. He realised an enormous 92,000-square-metre crystal box to contain the history of humanity. The construction, placed in Hyde Park in London, was formed by a central (4.)                                 and a transept. The nave was a huge open 564-metre-long (5.)                                 . The main exhibition spaces, consisting of two stories of stands, overlooked it. The crossing of the nave with the transept was covered by a (6.)                                , high enough to accommodate some century-old trees. This monumental building was built in a few months because it was made of huge modular glass, wood and (7.)                                 structures. Its (8.)                                 had another advantage, as the building could be dismantled and reassembled in another place. After the exhibition, which lasted six months, the constructional parts were transported to Sydenham Hill, in south-east London, and the (9.)                                 commenced. The new Crystal Palace incorporated most of the wood, iron and glass modules of the (10.)                                 Park building, but was different in form. In 1936 the building was destroyed by a fire.

Paris Urban Renovation

The French Emperor Napoleon III launched the greatest urban renovation of the city of Paris. The program of the work to be done, that lasted from 1853 to 1870, was directed by Georges-Eugène Haussmann. The new urban plan required the demolition of some medieval sections of the city, where the unplanned narrow streets were not efficient for commerce and traffic. Wide boulevards that ran north to south and east to west with diagonal connections were opened. Squares, parks and elegant palaces with uniform facades were built to give Paris the aspect of a modern capital. Not only was the practicability of the road network improved, but the city also became safer. In the wide boulevards it would be more difficult to raise barricades, as those that had been raised during the uprisings that had been troubling the country since 1789. Monumental railway stations like the Gare de Lyon and the Gare du Nord were constructed. However, the poorest classes continued to live in the old quarters in bad conditions.

Eiffel Tower

• A When the exposition finished, the structure was not dismantled and it became the symbol of the city of Paris. The Eiffel Tower remained the tallest structure in the world until the completion of the Chrysler Building in New York, in 1930.
• B In 1889 the Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair) was organised in Paris and it was for this occasion that the Eiffel Tower was built. This great work, designed by the French engineer Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, was the most astonishing example of the period’s new architectural technique, that was cast-iron architecture.
• C Reinforced concrete was a low-cost material that could withstand the action of atmospheric agents, and could assume different shapes By using reinforced concrete it became possible to construct buildings of exceptional dimensions.
• D One year later the Empire State Building was erected. It reached the incredible height of 381 metres, and 443 metres including the antenna. The skyscrapers, which changed the skyline of American cities, could reach such astonishing elevations thanks to the use of new materials and techniques. Steel and reinforced concrete, which is concrete containing steel bars, were used to absorb the tensile strength and avoid the deformation of the materials employed.
• E The equilibrium of this completely new structure was the result of complex static calculations. The result was a tower that was more than 300 metres high. Its weight was borne by four pillars joined by arches that formed a square base. In the project, at a height of 57 metres there was a first terrace, and then there was a second terrace at a height of 115 metres, which was to house a restaurant. The structure, in iron and cast iron, was entirely reticulated, so that it had a sense of lightness and it offered less resistance to the wind.
  

New Models of Town Planning

As a consequence of the Industrial Age and social question, theorists began to develop new models of town planning to provide citizens with healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environments. Here are some of the needs that 19th- and 20th-century urban planners had to consider in their theories and work plans: 

• to decentralise industrial environments from the centre of the cities; 
• to provide healthy living spaces for the factory workers; 
• to provide free access to gardens and parks; 
• to organise pedestrian circulation; 
• to organise the circulation of vehicles; 
• to organise infrastructures for public transport; 
• to preserve historical heritage; 
• to guarantee access to education; 
• to guarantee access to health care; 
• to organise commercial, financial, and political services; 
• to provide areas for social interaction, recreation and entertainment; 
• to provide pleasing living spaces for the elderly.