Architecture Unshackled 1790-1851

Panopticon, a type of prison building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham, 1791: "a new mode of obtaining power of mind

over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example."

Friedrich Gilly (German,1772-1800), design for a monument to Frederick II, 1795-9, unrealized Classical language “foretold a modernism that would not be fully realized until the supremacy of an age of industry and mass production a century later”

Sir John Soane, (left) Tivoli Corner, Bank of England, London, watercolor by Joseph Gandy, 1803(right) A 19th century print showing the rotunda at the Bank of England in London, designed by Sir John Soane.

John Nash, Royal Pavilion, Brighton, England 1815-23Orientalist

John Nash, Royal Pavilion at Brighton, interior, 1815-23

After the fire of 1834, the Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster) were built over the next 30 years. They were the work of the architect Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860) and A.W.N. Pugin (1812-52). Gothic Revival. Pugin provided the exterior and interior decoration, while Barry designed the structure of the building.

A.W.N. Pugin, House of Lords, Palace of Westminster, London, 1835-56

Wallpaper for the Palace of WestminsterA.W.N.Pugin ,1847, England, color print from woodblocks

One of more than a hundred papers designed by Pugin for the Palace of Westminster. It exemplifies Pugin's principles of pattern design, combining rich colors with flat formalised motifs. For Pugin, Gothic was the pre-eminent style. He believed that “All ornament should consist of enrichment of the essential construction of a building” and for him only the art and architecture of the Gothic period had fulfilled these ideals.

[Text from Victoria & Albert Museum, London]

A.W.N. Pugin, Contrast in the same town, 1840 and 1440, from Contrasts, 1841

John Nash, 1829-20, London, contemporary photograph of Regent Street: 'Royal Mile' to link Regent's Park with St James Park. Designed by In 1848 Nash's arcade was demolished.

Top: Joseph Paxton, The Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, London, 1851Bottom: A. W. N Pugin, Houses of Parliament, London, Gothic Revivalism, begun 1840

Crystal Palace by Joseph Paxton architect, Hyde Park, London, England (then Sydenham), 1851, moved 1852, burnt 1936

Joseph Paxton, Crystal Palace, 1851

Building the Crystal Palace with prefabricated truss

Building The Crystal Palace from prefabricated iron parts

Model of Crystal Palace construction

“Waiting for the Queen,” Orientalist décor of Crystal Palace, Illustration by Joseph Nash for Dickinson's Comprehensive Pictures of

the Great Exhibition of 1851

Two Beefeaters on guard at the entrance to the Crystal Palace, Hyde Park.

Ornamental cover for joints of girders

(disguising modernity)

Owen Jones’s scheme for the decoration of the Great Exhibition building,1850

Jones employed primary colors blue, red and yellow to elevate the building to the same standing as the Alhambra and the Parthenon, where similar color schemes were used. Fabric hangings from the iron framework of the building are meant to evoke the atmosphere of an Arabian bazaar.

Queen Victoria opens the Great Exhibition of 1851 (interior of Crystal Palace)

Silver table top sculpture shown in Great Exhibition of 1851Victorian Orientalism

Cartoon from Punch, British satirical magazine

Crystal Palace science exhibit: envelope machine

Compare bed and new railroad cars exhibited at Great Exhibition of 1851 (Crystal Palace)