New Materials - Industrial Revolution

As time passed; natural light evolved and was used mostly through access points that were prominent in that time such as the vaults in the Gothic Revival and so on. An era that is crucial in natural light’s evolution is the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution drastically shaped society with its advantages and disadvantages through the new developed materials that were being mass produced. As history shows new materials such as iron and glass and so on were developed in the Industrial Revolution; these materials created endless possibilities for access points, the ideology created easier natural light intake. One can look at the Crystal Palace 1851; constructed solely out of glass and iron the interior would be flooded with natural light creating a more open space and due to the fact that the light would be accessing from more than one point of the building the intensity of the light would balance itself out, one side from the other reducing glare conditions yet not completely erasing them as the light would reflect and bonce from the glass into one’s vision that could still create glare.

Crystal Palace 1851 

 The disadvantages of this era is that due to the mass production of materials the quality of work lessened and the art of hand made objects was forgotten. Artificial Lighting was also introduced in the mist of all and due to the fascination of such an invention many architects and designers were overwhelmed with the endless possibilities one can produce; therefore when issue was risen due to the poor intake of natural light instead of fixing such an issue or finding possible solutions many turned to artificial lighting thus overlooking natural light.