Iron Architecture. Arquitectura del Hierro is the generic name for a style of architecture and construction from the 19th century , originated in the availability of new materials that occurred during the Industrial Revolution .
origins
The Industrial Revolution , which began in England around the year 1760 , brought many new compositions until then not even dreamed of. However, architects continued to use traditional materials for a long time, while the academies of Fine Arts considered the fantastic structures designed by engineers throughout the 19th century “not artistic” .
The first building constructed entirely of iron and glass was the Crystal Palace ( 1850 – 1851 ; rebuilt between 1852 and 1854 ) in London , a large nave prepared to host the first London Universal Exposition of 1851 , which was designed by Joseph Paxton , who He had learned the use of these materials in the construction of greenhouses. This building was the precursor of precast architecture , and with it the possibility of making beautiful buildings in iron was demonstrated.
Among the few examples of the use of iron in 19th century architecture , a building by Henri Labrouste stands out , the library of Santa Genoveva ( 1843 -1850) in Paris , a building in the neoclassical style on the outside but which revealed the metallic structure. The most impressive iron buildings of the century were built for the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1889 : the Machinery nave and the famous Eiffel Tower ( 1887 ) by the engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel
