For Construction & Decoration: How Steel Transformed the World
The Industrial Revolution brought the world many inventions that changed the global economy, politics, culture and social life forever. They also influenced the shape and appearance of cities – and this was accomplished to the greatest extent by steel.
Steel, an alloy of iron and carbon, was known already to the ancients. The oldest archaeological artefacts made of steel date back to 4000 BC and have been found in what is now Turkey. The Spartans were said to have used steel to make weapons, as were the Chinese and the Indians; in the early Middle Ages, Damascus steel was renowned for its durability and strength – melee weapons made from it were considered the best. However, until the mid-19th century, steel was used infrequently and for small-scale components: it was expensive and not easy to work. The great breakthroughs came in the 18th and 19th centuries, when, one after the other, technical inventions began to emerge that made wider use of the material's qualities. They learned to purify the alloy of superfluous components, making it both stronger and more flexible, such that steel could be produced faster, cheaper and on a larger scale in new steel furnaces.
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Suspension bridge in Ozimek, photo: Michal Grocholski/AW
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Before this happened, iron and its alloys became a tool for the development of infrastructure – they contributed to the faster development of railways, and when properly worked they also proved to be excellent bridge-building material. The first such structure is believed to have been erected in 1779 in the English town of Telford; between 1825 and 1827 in Ozimek in the Opole region, an iron chain bridge was built using 1,600 iron elements made at the local 'Malapane' ironworks. Preserved to this day (recognised as a Monument of History), it is also considered one of the most innovative constructions of its time. In 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge in New York was completed – its steel suspension mechanism is 486 metres long and was reportedly inspired by the Ozimek Bridge.
Home Insurance Building, designed by William Le Baron Jenney, Chicago, photo: Chicago Architectural Photographing Company
Further, steel made its way into architecture through industrial buildings: at the end of the 18th century in Great Britain, elements made of it were first used to make mills larger and taller, but above all they became much more fire-resistant. Once it became clear that steel could be used to create stable and durable structures, the material found its way into architecture for good. And it came in handy right away: it made it possible to build ever taller buildings in densely built-up and populated Chicago. It was here that the first skyscrapers (tiny from today's perspective, back then –real skyscrapers) were first built. In 1886, the Rand-McNally Building, designed by Burnham and Root Architects, stood at 160-174 Adams Street. It was 10 storeys and 45 metres high, record-breaking for the time, housing shops and offices, but was demolished in 1911. But in the neighbourhood, ever taller buildings were being built every year. In 1891, the Home Insurance Building already stood 10 metres taller. As an indication of how quickly steel and reinforced concrete construction technology developed, the 54-metre-high Home Insurance Building, considered the first true skyscraper in the world, was demolished in 1931, just 40 years after its construction, to make way for the Field Building, which had already reached 163 metres.
While in the case of the first skyscrapers, steel was used for utilitarian purposes and hidden under stone cladding, as early as 1889 a structure was built which showcased this material in an impressive manner. This was of course the Eiffel Tower, built in Paris for the World Exhibition. Initially highly controversial, the structure was intended to showcase France's technological and scientific capabilities. But the work of engineer Gustave Eiffel was not the first; in 1851, the first World Exhibition was held in London and its highlight was The Crystal Palace, designed by Joseph Paxton. The huge building (549m long and 43m high) served as an exhibition hall and was constructed entirely of cast iron and glass. In the case of both of these showpiece buildings – it was building with steel that was considered the best way to showcase the country's innovation.
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Napoleon Square in Warsaw, Prudential skyscraper on the left, 1947, photo: Edward Falkowski / CFK / Forum
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Plac Napoleona w Warszawie, 1947, fot. Edward Falkowski / CFK / Forum
In crowded Chicago, steel structures made it possible to build at great heights, but the drive to construct ever soaring structures was not just driven by need. When it became possible – it simply became fashionable. In the 1930s, the designer Stefan Bryła, who had experience working on American skyscrapers, designed a skyscraper for Warsaw together with the architect Marcin Weinfeld. The headquarters of the Prudential insurance company were over 60 metres high and had a modern steel structure. So well made that it was not defeated by German bombs falling on the building during World War II. Stefan Bryła also designed the world's first welded road bridge – commissioned in 1929, it is located in Maurzyce in the Łódzkie Voivodeship.
The modernists saw hope in steel. It was the lightweight yet strong structural skeleton that was to provide the possibility of creating buildings with facades and walls freed from the load-bearing function or with undercut ground floors. Helena and Szymon Syrkus designed their most avant-garde project – blocks of flats for workers in the Rakowiec district in Warsaw, using steel structures, thanks to which small (but cheap) flats could be freely shaped, and horizontal strips of large windows were to provide light, air and a view of greenery. Unfortunately, the construction of the blocks began during the economic crisis of the 1930s and steel had already proved too expensive to use.
Today, steel frames are used in architecture extensively.
A bird's-eye view of the Varso Tower construction site in Warsaw, photo: Łukasz Szczepańsk/Reporter/East News
They are used not only for warehouses, industrial or sports facilities. They are also sometimes used for houses, small public buildings or office buildings. A steel frame allows for free shaping of the structure (it offers more possibilities than e.g. reinforced concrete), it is faster to build, fireproof and, if properly secured, durable and maintenance-free. If it were not for steel, the undulating roof of Warsaw's Złote Tarasy shopping centre or the impressive, snail-shell-like dome of the Cavatina Hall concert hall in Bielsko-Biała would not have been possible. Above all, however, it would be impossible to build ever-taller skyscrapers without this material. Steel has played a key role in skyscrapers built from the early 20th century to the present day. Including, the record-breaking Burj Khalifa in Dubai (828 m), the Rondo I in Warsaw (159 m) and the Varso Tower (230 m).
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Trzonolinowiec, Wrocław, photo: Tomasz Pietrzyk/AW
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Steel does not always have to appear as a rigid structure in architecture; steel cables are no less widely used. They can be used to span huge roofs of sports or entertainment venues, rendering the supporting pillars (and those obstructing the view from the stands) obsolete. This solution was used by Maciej Nowicki in the design of his most important project, the state-of-the-art Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Dorton Arena, designed by Maciej Nowicki, Raleigh, North Carolina, 1950, photo: Tadeusz Barucki
Successive storeys of Wrocław's Trzonolinowiec, a structurally unique residential building from the 1960s designed by Jacek Burzyński and Andrzej Skorupa, are suspended on steel cables to a reinforced concrete column. The structural steel arches allowed constructors Wacław Zalewski and Andrzej Żurawski to create an unusually impressive, extensive, hanging roof over the entire Supersam shop in Warsaw (architects who designed the building: Maciej Krasiński, Ewa Krasińska, Jerzy Hryniewiecki, Zbigniew Karpiński).
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The Milwaukee Art Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, photo: Izzet Keribar/Getty Images
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Frei Otto stretched the spectacular structure of the Munich Olympic Stadium, built in 1972 on steel cables. Santiago Calatrava, whose usually organically-shaped white buildings are extremely striking and photogenic, is very fond of steel cable constructions. German architect Helmut Jahn 'borrowed' the structure of the Cosmopolitan skyscraper he designed in Warsaw from engineers who make suspension bridges. He combined the reinforced concrete skeleton with cables that support the successive floors of the 160-metre-high building. In this way, it has retained its slender silhouette and gained the deep undercut of the lower floors (the higher floors are overhung above it).
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Grzegorz Gorzaje Gorczycki Educational and Cultural Centre in Bytom, project: Medusa Group, photo: Tomasz Zakrzewski, Miłosz Jaksik/Medusa Group
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While steel is best suited for the structural elements of a building, other types of metal are also becoming more fashionable in contemporary architecture. However, these are mainly used to create the appearance of a building, as a finishing element. Rust-coloured weathering steel (which is specially patinated and supposed to change its appearance over time) has triumphed in architecture for many years. It covers the façade of the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk – the building, standing on the threshold of the Gdańsk Shipyard, is designed to resemble a ship's hull. Rust-coloured metal sheets were used by Medusa Group architects in the construction of not only the Silesian lofts, but also the Grzegorz Gerwasy Gorczycki Educational and Cultural Centre and the Rosary Garden at St. Jacek's Church in Bytom, the chapel in Kraków's Bronowice district and a single-family house in the Bieszczady Mountains.
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CWA House, Owczarnia, designed by Beczak/Beczak Architekci, architects: Magdalena Beczak, Maciej Beczak, 2014, photo: Jan Karol Gołębiewski/Beczak/Beczak Architekci
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Metal cladding, once more associated with industrial or warehouse buildings, is becoming more common in single-family architecture. Metal sheets no longer cover only roofs, but also facades of residential buildings, such as the house in Szałsza near Gliwice designed by DwA studio, the house in Beskid Śląski designed by Kropka Studio or the CWA House, built in Owczarnia near Warsaw according to a concept by Beczak / Beczak Architekci.
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European Family Centre, Sopot, designed by FAAB Architektura, photo: press materials FAAB architektura Białobrzeski
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Aluminium is an important element of an unusual building that has recently sprung up in Sopot. The European Family Centre designed by FAAB Architects (the first of the planned five buildings) has an organic shape, inspired by a sea wave. The building is entirely covered with white perforated metal sheets. Architects working for PKP are also keen to use metal sheets. Since 2020, so-called system stations, similar pavilion-like buildings containing ticket offices, waiting rooms, toilets and a kiosk, have been built in towns where there was no station or where the old station was due for demolition. Small and inexpensive, they are supposed to fulfil all the basic functions we expect from this type of building. Their facades are covered with sheet metal: it is resistant and durable, and due to its different composition, it differs in colour and texture, which gives each pavilion a slightly more individual character. So far, several dozen system stations have been built in Poland, e.g. in Ciechanów, Nowy Tomyśl, Sędziszów, Nasielsk, Bielsko-Podlaski.
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Railway station, Nasielsk, photo: Polish State Railways/www.pkp.pl/pl
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Steel has transformed the world's construction industry for good. It has influenced not only the way buildings are constructed, but also their appearance. And although the older generation raised on Polish housing estates often associates sheet metal with garages built on the outskirts of housing estates, the material plays a huge role in the space of our cities. Sometimes it just remains unseen.
Originally written in Polish, translated into English by Michal Niedzielski, 13 September 2023
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