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Seeing through glass: The fictive role of glass in shaping

architecture from Joseph Paxton's "Crystal Palace" to
Bruno Taut's "Glashaus"
Ersoy, Ufuk. University of Pennsylvania, 2008. 2008. 3328551.

Abstract
This dissertation investigates the appropriation of mass-produced glass into architectural discourse
through the metaphors of cladding and crystal. This investigation revolves around two seminal
works: Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace (1851) and Bruno Taut's Glashaus (1914). For Paxton, the
glass envelope was an instrument to measure and control the physical qualities of interior space.
For Taut, rather than a building material, glass was an expressive, artistic tool and it brought out
a "surplus" of meaning, which went beyond practical demands of daily life. Through Paxton and
Taut's incompatible approaches, a problem which dominates works focusing on the history of glass
in architecture represents itself. The historical accounts, written mostly in the pragmatic framework of
technological determinism assume a consistent linear development in the use of glass and disregard
the diversity of interpretations. But, the dissimilarity of the two buildings--that Taut confirmed by
drawing on John Ruskin an antagonist of the Crystal Palace--calls for an alternative account of how
this industrial material became incorporated within architectural theory and practice, or in Taut's
words, how it became endowed with an "architectonic quality." Instead of observing the progress
in manufacturing and construction techniques, this dissertation concentrates on the metaphors
that Taut and Paxton employed in order to solve the theoretical riddle between this mass-produced
material and architectural principles. Deciphering these metaphors, the dissertation reveals that, far
from displaying a structural truth, glass appealed to Paxton and Taut by virtue of its fictive attributes.
The potential of a substance to act in the subjunctive mode of "as if" and to suspend material reality
invited both to explore a different way of engaging the environment. More specifically, while Paxton
mastered ways of cultivating organisms from different climates by making them feel at home in a re-
created natural environment, Taut attempted to open a door to the opaque, symbolic depth of the
world, by reactivating a vision similar to the Homo religiosus . The metaphors to which Paxton and
Taut referred still haunt architectural discourse and continue to perform their heuristic function.

Indexing (details)
Subjects: Architecture
Classification: 0729: Architecture
Identifiers / Keywords: Communication and the arts, Glass in architecture, Architectural
representation, Crystal Palace, Glashaus, Paxton, Joseph,
England, Taut, Bruno, Germany, Glass
Title: Seeing through glass: The fictive role of glass in shaping
architecture from Joseph Paxton's "Crystal Palace" to Bruno
Taut's "Glashaus"
Authors: Ersoy, Ufuk
Publication year: 2008
Degree Date: 2008
Section: 0175
Source: DAI-A 69/09, Mar 2009
ISBN: 9780549809524
Advisor: Leatherbarrow, David
School: University of Pennsylvania
School location: United States -- Pennsylvania
Degree: Ph.D.
Source type: Dissertations & Theses
Language: English
Document Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication / Order 3328551
Number:
ProQuest Document ID: 304505959
Document URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/304505959?
accountid=12084
Copyright: Copyright ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing 2008
Database: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT)

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