Of Light and Coal: Resources, Materials and the Definition of 'Nature' at the Crystal Palace, c.1851–1854

This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.In 19th-century England, ‘nature’ was re-made in relation to landscapes, resources, and social orders deemed natural or unnatural. Both the nefarious effects of industry at home and the unusual climates of the colonies reinforced the idea that ‘nature’ had to be redeemed by means of environmental ‘improvements,’ to make the Earth beautiful for some, and productive by means of others. This paper proposes to examine this enterprise through a revised architectural history of the Crystal Palace, built in 1851 for the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in Hyde Park. For the Crystal Palace allows us to reflect on the role of architecture as a mediator between the material conditions of a given society and its cultural expression: in this case, between resource extraction, architectural materials, and the idea of ‘nature’ as formulated in 19th century Britain. Through this lens, the Crystal Palace unveils a paradox. On the one hand, the Crystal Palace was meant to embody certainty in industrial progress, and British moral superiority in its ability to understand, master and steward ‘nature.’ On the other hand, the unstable material fabric of the Crystal Palace contradicted British claims to the mastery of nature and its principles, while, at the same time, the Crystal Palace appeared dependent upon the degraded environmental and social conditions it was supposed to redeem.