Crystal and iron architecture, iron and glass, or ferrovitreal, are names for a construction technique and architectural style typical of the Industrial Revolution, which was popularized through railway architecture, commercial galleries and covered markets,[1]​ and the large pavilions of the universal exhibitions of the second half of the century.[2]​.

It gained great social acceptance in Victorian England after the Crystal Palace (Joseph Paxton, 1851). Paxton had experimented with the use of these materials in the construction of the great greenhouse at Chatsworth House[3]​ (1837-1840), which impressed Queen Victoria and was imitated in the Palm House at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (architect Decimus Burton[4]​ and foundryman Richard Turner,[5]​ 1841-1849). An iron and glass dome 18 meters in diameter had previously been erected at the Coal Exchange[6]​ in London (James Bunstone Bunning,[7]​ 1847-1849). There are previous precedents.[8]​ Between 1843 and 1846, the transparent roof of the Teatro Goldoni (Livorno) was built in Italy,[9]​ by Giuseppe Cappellini.[10]​[11]​.

During the century its technology continued to develop and wrought iron achieved exceptional relevance when the universal rolling mill was invented and large beams could be achieved. Later, steel would replace cast and wrought iron due to its strength and elasticity.

However, a long time would pass from the invention of these materials to the widespread use of them. For example, reinforced concrete, found in 1849, did not really become noticeable in architecture until the turn of the century and many architects rejected it for altering the traditional image of buildings. For their part, projects designed only with iron produced the sensation of being strange, non-architectural artifacts, which is why again many architects considered them works of engineering without possible beauty.

However, despite this conceptual rejection, architects ended up taking on the innovations, given their benefits. This material had already been used in roofs in the century and England was the earliest country to use it; Later France and the other industrialized countries would join.

The massive use of steel both for structures (Steel Framing) and for visible elements and for a glazed exterior "skin" (curtain wall or "curtain wall") is characteristic of the functionalist architecture and skyscrapers of the Modern Movement and the second Chicago school (Mies van der Rohe), from the second third of the century (more recently, the exterior enclosure systems with double-skin facade or ventilated facade).