Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-9q27g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T21:45:50.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Delivering the well-tempered institution of 1873

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2008

Jeffrey Cook
Affiliation:
Research in Building GroupSchool of Architecture & EngineeringUniversity of Westminster35 Marylebone RoadLondon NW1 5LS, United Kingdom
Tanis Hinchcliffe
Affiliation:
Research in Building GroupSchool of Architecture & EngineeringUniversity of Westminster35 Marylebone RoadLondon NW1 5LS, United Kingdom

Abstract

The Museum of Natural History, London, typified the state of environmental service design in large public buildings when construction started in 1873, as described in an earlier paper in arq, vol. 2. Its exemplary systems included both ventilation with heating and the architect's use of towers, especially the novel multi-sleeved versions which he described as ‘thermosyphonic’, as ventilation exhausts. This paper describes how, both in critical design decisions during construction and in physical adjustments made after its occupation in 1881, the Museum reveals both contemporary practices and the professional skills of its architect and engineer.

Type
Environment
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Billington, Neville S. and Roberts, Brian M. (1982). Building Services Engineering: A Review of its Development. Pergamon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Boyle, Robert and Son, (1900). The Boyle System of Ventilation. London.Google Scholar
Collins, Peter (1965). Changing Ideals in Modern Architecture 1750–1950. p238, Faber & Faber, London.Google Scholar
Cook, Jeffrey and Hinchcliffe, Tanis (1995). ‘Designing the well-tempered institution of 1873’, Architectural Research Quarterly, Vol. 1: Winter 1995, pp.7078.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunningham, Colin and Waterhouse, Prudence (1992). Alfred Waterhouse 1830–1905. Clarendon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Hiort, John William (1826). A practical treatise on the construction of chimneys, containing an examination of the common mode in which they are built; with an accurate description of the newly invented tunnel [etc.], London, Winchester and Farnham.Google Scholar
Olley, John, and Wilson, Caroline (1985). ‘The Natural History Museum: Masters of Modern Building’. Architects' Journal, 27 03 1985, pp.3255.Google Scholar
Port, M. H. (ed.) (1976). The Houses of Parliament. Yale University Press, New Haven, USA.Google Scholar
Powell, C. G. (1980). An Economic History of the British Building Industry 1815–1979. The Architectural Press, London.Google Scholar
Reid, David Boswell (1844). Illustrations of the Theory and Practice of Ventilation. Longman, Brown, etc. London.Google Scholar
Wilson, Colin St. John (1992). Architectural Reflections. Studies in the Philosophy and Practice of Architecture. Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd, Oxford.Google Scholar
Yanni, Carla, (1994). Building Natural History: Constructions of Nature in Victorian British Architecture. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar