Who designed the Crystal Palace in London?

• A. Sir Joseph Paxton
• B. Antoni Gaudi
• C. Le Corbusier
• D. Frank Lloyd Wright

Answer: (A)

This question hinges on recognizing the designer behind one of the era’s most famous iron-and-glass structures. The Crystal Palace in London, built for the Great Exhibition of 1851, was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton. Paxton wasn’t a traditional architect; he was a prolific gardener who designed large glasshouses, like those at Chatsworth, and he brought that experience to create a vast, modular system of standardized iron columns and glass panes. This approach allowed the building to be assembled into an enormous, luminous interior that showcased industrial-age construction. The other figures mentioned—Gaudí, Le Corbusier, Wright—are associated with later movements and different projects, not this structure.