Corrugated Iron: Building on the Frontier
Adam Mornement and Simon Holloway
Praise for Corrugated Iron:
"Flush with large-scale photos of patinated vernacular buildings…and fun archival illustrations. What makes this book more than eye candy is the authors’ exhaustive treatment. Clearly they love the subject – Holloway describes it as passion."
—Architect Magazine
"This book tells the evolving story of the material in a thoughtful and considered way, with an obvious passionate love for the material. The authors have tracked down many of the important historical examples and it is illustrated by good photographs."
—The Architectural Review
"This fascinating book . . . follows the rich and varied history of this versatile material. . . . [A] well-researched, well-written and engaging narrative. . . . Part glossy picture book, part scholarly essay, the text is supported by a well-chosen selection of dramatic contemporary photographs, historic illustrations and imagery. . . . It is well-produced and can be easily read from cover to cover or dipped in and out of, depending where your interests lie—be it historic buildings, 20th-century design, contemporary architecture, or specific structures such as the Nissen huts from World War I. Highly recommended for designers generalyl and anyone broadly interested in design and design history."
—Curve
"Corrugated metal surely stands alongside the great inventions, a democrativ and international material as at home in the slums as it is in the avant garde and this book is a very enjoyable trawl through its obscure and deeply fascinating history. . . . [E]xquisite photos by Julius Shulman. . . . [A]n enthralling piece of social and global history"
—The Financial Times
"This is a book that heralds the array of uses and finally gives corrugated metal its moment in the sun. To read about the history of corrugation was a discovery, and yet the book is a visual delight with memorable projects from across the world."
—David Lake, FAIA, Lake|Flato Architects
"[P]acked with full-color images that will make it catnip to architecturally minded modernists….The book is replete with fascinating reproductions of posters, catalog copy, and architectural renderings….a wonderful book."
—Wilson Quarterly
"[A] fascinating study."
—Desert Living
Overview
When Henry Palmer of the London Dock Company was granted the first patent for “indented or corrugated metallic sheets” in 1829, he little realized what he was starting. Within a few years engineers were putting up warehouses and elegant railway stations of corrugated iron. By the late 1840s entrepreneurial manufacturers were sending out build-it-yourself cottages for gold prospectors in California and Australia. Whole townships complete with churches, sports pavilions, hotels, and meeting halls were soon available from catalogs, to be flat-packed and sent around the world. The First World War brought the development of the shelter known as the Nissen hut, perhaps the most iconic of all corrugated iron buildings and forerunner of the Quonset hut.
Today corrugated sheet metal has proved invaluable in relief work and is used so often as roofing in the developing world that it can lay claim to shelter more people from the elements than any other building material. But the big surprise comes as architects around the world rediscover the virtues of this durable, biodegradable, and environmentally sound material, sufficiently versatile to create unique works of architecture and to house thousands in disaster zones. It answers the needs of both high-tech aesthetics and low-tech aspirations for affordability and ease of construction, as demonstrated by such cutting-edge architects as Will Bruder and Lake/Flato Architects in the United States; Glenn Murcutt in Australia; Rem Koolhaas, Nicholas Grimshaw, and Foreign Office Architects in Europe; and Shuhei Endo in Japan.
Whether the appeal lies in nostalgia for rain on rusting tin roofs or in the sophistication of contemporary architecture, corrugated iron deserves to be taken seriously. It has a long and fascinating history and a future as bright as its past.
About the Authors
Adam Mornement is a writer and editor specializing in the history of design and contemporary architecture. His books include Extensions, Treehouses, and No Longer Notorious.
Simon Holloway is an engineer and an expert in architectural restoration. He lives in Shropshire, England, and is the author of a prize-winning historical atlas of breeding birds. His great passion is researching and communicating the history of corrugated iron.
ISBN 10: 0-393-73240-1
ISBN 13: 978-0-393-73240-5
2007 / 200 color and b/w photo & drawings / 224 pages / hardcover
