Gedecoreerde overkappingen en wintertuinen in Antwerpse burger- en herenwoningen, 1860-1930

Samenvatting

Decorated Glass Roofs and Conservatories in Antwerp City Mansions, 1860-1930

In the 19th century, industrialisation brought on a revolution in production techniques and an improvement in the making of glass and iron. The newly improved materials gave rise to new construction techniques and types of buildings, such as great train stations, shopping centres or arcades, bank and office buildings, and covered markets. Illumination was provided by their glazed roofs, which allowed light to enter the inside of the building from above in addition to light from the regular windows in the façade. Due to the negative connotations that these industrial materials had for the bourgeoisie, neither glazed roofs nor iron were used very often in city mansions and villas and, for a long time, architects refused to let iron structures show for aesthetic reasons.

From 1860 on, the construction of conservatories in these city mansions became very popular, which led to the construction of many glass roofs above historical courtyards. Often, these conservatories were built against the rear façade of the houses as an extension of salons, music chambers, the bel-étage, and reception rooms. The conservatories were an indispensable addendum to the wealthy man’s dwelling and a representation of one’s financial means. Usually, the glass houses were filled with expensive tropical and subtropical plants and were highly praised as a room for gatherings and entertainment, reflection and recreation.

The glass roofs and conservatories in the city mansions of Antwerp sketch a development in shape, construction methods, and material. The experimental elegant trusses from the 19th century evolved to more standard trusses in the beginning of the 20th century: between 1860 and 1914, when the making of metal was in an experimental stage, trusses were aesthetic and decorated, often made out of wrought or cast iron. In the beginning of the 20th century, the process of steel making became more refined and the trusses more standardized. Instead of the finely formed trusses, glass roofs were supported by steel frame- work trusses, which were often hidden behind more decorative stained glass or opaque glass in a framework under the trusses.

The inventory of glass roofs and conservatories in Antwerp that I made as part of my research proves that most of those iron and glass constructions – vital to the image of the 19th and early 20th century architecture – were demolished or otherwise destroyed. Further research into (and cataloguing of) these increasingly rare iron and glass elements is there- fore essential to safeguard them as the more material one has for comparison, the better one can assess the value of already preserved examples of this type of structure.