Prefabrication experiments - 205 - master industrialists - 06 - Henry Robinson Palmer’s patent for corrugated iron

Prefabrication and industrialization are at times used interchangeably when discussing the prospects of manufacturing applied to architecture and construction. While prefabrication, as old as civilization, only implies preparing materials in advance of their use, continuous industrialized production transformed, standardized and globalized building culture in relating contexts during the 18th and 19th centuries. Making, preparing, shipping and distributing industrialized materials arguably contributed to shaping a type of colonized vernacular. No material symbolized this type of cultural adaptation to a greater degree than corrugated iron (from the latin corrugo which means to bend or fold) patented in 1829 by architect and civil engineer Henry Robinson Palmer. 

Employed as an architect by the London Dock Company, Palmer had the wrinkled iron sheets milled as a roofing material for large warehouse spaces. His intention was simple: the sinuous curves created by pushing flat material though shaped rolling mills stiffened the metal sheet. The corrugated pattern could be easily stacked or staggered and the material overlapped, nailed or screwed to framing to produce a water-repellent joint. Combining ease of production and flat pack stacking with straightforward construction detailing for onsite assembly and disassembly the product quickly became the go to material for roofing and walls. Corrugated sheets were shipped to British colonies, specifically where gold and diamond rushers needed vast amounts of temporary dwellings in a short period of time. Britain had become its colonies manufacturing plant, usurping local building culture. 

Palmer’s patent purchased by the London Dock Company and contractor Richard Walker expired in 1843.  A large number of iron mills consequently entered the corrugated sheet market and the material benefitted from the addition of galvanic coatings, varied curvatures and assorted steel grades. This increasing variety was presented at the London exhibit of 1851 (known for Crystal Palace) and supported by the Monarchy who suggested a royal ballroom (Balmoral castle) be built with corrugated iron by the Eagle Foundry of Manchester. The building’s cast iron frame was infilled with painted corrugated iron sheets. The material became so popular in Australia that it was manufactured locally in the early 1900s and substantiated a form of Australian modernism including recognized work by Glenn Murcutt. 

Rolling flat sheet material to a stiffened corrugated sheet