The Crystal Palace

The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and plate-glass building, which was originally built in Hyde Park, London.  Designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, the building was 564 metres long and with an interior of 39 metres height.  Since it was made by large sheets of strong glass, the visitors were amazed by the building and have never seen anything like that before.  henceforth, it was called The Crystal Palace (it was originally named as The Great Exhibition of 1851 Of Industry Of All Nations).

As the original title mentions, it housed an enormous exhibition of various products from the entire world.  there were about 100,000 objects which were displayed along more that 10 miles by over 15,000 contributors.  The objects varied from a Hydraulic Press, a Printing Machine, carriages, drapery, sculptures and much more.

Six months later, the structure was disassembled and then reassembled again in Sydenham Hill in South London.  Unfortunately, the building was destroyed by fire in 1936.

The Industrial Revolution

In the olden times, all things were handmade.  At those times the objects were unique and genuine.  Individuality was very important.  The Industrial Revolution of the 18^th century was a turning point in human history.

The Industrial Revolution was the shift from handcrafted, to mass produced products.  The rural societies, mostly in Europe and America turned to urban and industrialized states. This also marked the shift to powered, special-purpose machinery and factories.  The steam engine was created only a few years earlier in 1756 by James Watt.  Even though it polluted the air, it was a very useful engine and improved the systems of transportation, communication and banking.  Moreover, coal was utilized instead of wood, since it took much longer to burn.

In addition, more jobs were created.  As we can see in the picture, those people were all on their way to the factories for work.  Unfortunately for them their work conditions were rather horrific and their way of living was not very good.

What Is Design?

Design, a simple word yet not easy to explain.  It is one of those words which many have known and heard of.  There are numerous definitions of the word.  Some are long and elaborate, while others are concise and simple.  In other words, everyone has his own personal explanation.

A good definition of Design would be – Design is the process of a new creation, in which the designer through his experience and skill has to make something to fulfil the public’s needs.

To come up with a final product, the designer has to go through different procedures.  There are quite a good number of them, which mainly include:

• ·       The Problem
• ·       The Brainstorming
• ·       The Sketches
• ·       The Development
• ·       The Experimentation
• ·       The Presentation
• ·       The Selling of the Design

The designers are problem solvers themselves.  They use their training, skills and also experience to find the solutions to the everyday problems.  The designers can be said to be both technicians and artists.

One must also take note that a new design comes up when the original design is modified.  It could be the addition of new functions, or could be less and simpler, or the technology is changed, the form or even the function itself is altered.  New ideas come up every day!