Houses of Glass A Nineteenth Century Building Type Book by G Kohlmaier

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Softcover. English. Pub Year 1991, See images for condition. About the book >.>.> Houses of Glass examines the nineteenth-century glasshouse as a building type shaped by the cultivation, display and commercial use of plants. Combining iron, glass and steam, these structures enclosed tropical environments and presented nature as a carefully maintained work of art. They offered a vision of reconciliation between people and nature, even as industrial growth reduced urban access to greenery and colonial exploitation threatened distant landscapes.The book considers the glasshouse as both a symbolic museum of nature and a place of popular science, plant cultivation and commerce. Botanical gardens arranged plants by origin and classification, while public winter gardens presented elaborate displays to paying visitors and supplied plants to private homes. Their pathways, organisation and aesthetics also anticipated the great world exhibitions of the century. Joseph Paxton?s Crystal Palace, built for the 1851 exhibition, was described as a giant greenhouse. By drawing the public into a managed spectacle of the plant kingdom, the winter garden also foreshadowed the entertainment industry. (OS).…