Welcome to the Glass Age

98 This fascination was always hindered by a limited supply and production of glass, a limitation that reduced the material to a luxury status. The Industrial Revolution unleashed new ways to mass produce glass in panes or common artifacts. Ample supplies and cheap production turned glass into a more affordable material to build even the simplest of structures (Figure 6.4). What Benjamin’s research argues is a change in the cultural and popular consensus around the use of glass with the construction and inauguration of Paxton’s Crystal Palace. While the arcades of Paris were a modern life predecessor of the Crystal Palace, it was Paxton’s work to set the material of a modern architecture in Europe, correlated to the industrial progress of its Figure 6.3. Il Vetro magazine covers. Source: Instituto Bardi.