The 'Iron Problem' in the 1850s

Abstract

Many historians have maintained that the true pioneers of the Modern Movement were the engineers of the Crystal Palaces and railway stations. Architects are supposed to have adopted a reactionary position by adhering to masonry structures and persisting with the strict imitation of historical motifs. Recent research in nineteenth-century architectural theory, however, suggests a rather different interpretation. Many architects and architectural writers in the mid-Victorian period were deeply involved with the question of new materials; and they proposed quite a variety of solutions to the ‘iron problem'.