Earlier this week I alluded to the remarkable success of the Great Exhibition of 1851. The credit often goes to Prince Albert but it was the brainchild of a civil servant, Henry Cole, among much else the inventor of the Christmas card. Joseph Paxton lent a hand, designing the Crystal Palace to house the exhibits in Hyde Park.
It was an impressive building inside and out.
The inside bears a distinct resemblance to the GUM department store in Moscow (below), built in the 1890s. This is not really surprising as the Russian architect drew inspiration for the glass roof from London’s railway termini, which in turn were influenced by the design for glasshouses, which in turn was what Paxton designed.
After the Great Exhibition the Crystal Palace was moved to a suburb in south London where it remained until it burnt down in 1936. However, since 2000, the Serpentine Galleries in Kensington Gardens, a biscuit’s throw from Hyde Park, have commissioned temporary pavilions designed by architects who have not had permanent structures built in the UK. They are on a much smaller scale than the Crystal Palace and some of the designs have been, frankly, weird. This year the sixteenth pavilion is designed by Danish firm, the Bjarke Ingels Group. It is not complete and doesn’t open until 10th June but here is a peek over the fence. Bjarke Ingels has designed Two World Trade Center in New York, not yet built, and much else besides in Denmark.
