Table of Contents
Part I Introduction 1
Iron & Glass 4
technology & patronage
engineer geniuses
origins of iron & glass
forms of iron & glass
types of iron & glass
exhibition palaces
The Crystal Palace at Hyde Park 12
the meanings of the Great Exhibition
expositions
the birth of the Crystal Palace
the palace as architecture
spectrality
the vanishing palace
exhibiting pride & doubt
The Crystal Palace at Sydenham 24
what is to be done with the Crystal Palace?
comparing the palaces
a palace for the people
education and edification
spatial strangeness
the court system
technological romanticism
allegory & ruin
music at the palace
wax cylinders and memory
decline
a sad and sorry sight
a massive absence
The Albert Palace 44
iron & glass fever
the birth of the Albert Palace
a multimedia entertainment centre
very depressing circumstances
decline
Albert Palace for the People
a melancholy scene
ravens to the carcase
a non-conductor of coin & prosperity
a tangible sense of inadequacy
the haunted archive
Part II Modernity and the Engineer Genius 61
eclecticism
steel & concrete
descendents
Utopias in iron & glass
weakness
international style
the constructor
1889 syndrome
iron, glass and revolution
Solutionism 77
introducing the solutionist
Bucky Fuller
Festival of Britain
Archigram
fascination over engagement
Centre Pompidou
revivalist reaction
British high tech
the Millenium Dome
what happened to the prefab future?
big sheds
Cedric Price
Iconism 99
the postmodern age
critiques of modernism
the rise of theory
Peter Eisemnan
20th century mannerism
mimicked theory
Eisenman & Derrida
critique without criticism
Deconstructivist Architecture
the sight-bite
the museum of nothing
Virtualism 119
the computer
intuition and theory
the Deleuzian moment
folds, diagrammes and virtuality
curators of form
Deleuzian yuppies
biomimicry
geometry
parametricism
eclecticism
Conclusion 138
Notes 143
