Function and fantasy: iron architecture in the long nineteenth century

The introduction of iron - and later steel - construction and decoration transformed architecture in the nineteenth century.

While the structural employment of iron has been a frequent subject of study, this book re-directs scholarly scrutiny on its place in the aesthetics of architecture in the long nineteenth century.

Together, its eleven unique and original chapters chart - for the first time - the global reach of iron's architectural reception, from the first debates on how iron could be incorporated into architecture's traditional aesthetics to the modernist cleaving of its structural and ornamental roles.