© Thomas Jantscher
“The dangerous idea that a new style of architecture must emerge because we are now using iron ... has already led some talented ... architects astray.” Gottfried Semper’s concerns, expressed in 1863, were well founded. Architects have indeed been led ‘astray’ or rather have seized the opportunities opened up by iron, and its successor steel. Long gone are the days when steel buildings had to clad themselves with stone.?