The Crystal Palace (London, 1851) marked a turning point in modern architecture. Designed by Joseph Paxton, it introduced a completely new building typology based on iron, glass, prefabrication, and modular construction. The lecture explains how its rapid, economical, and industrially produced building system shifted architecture from traditional form-making to process-driven construction, influencing later High-Tech architecture and large-scale modern enclosures. It also traces how the Crystal Palace established the foundations of prefabrication, transparency, and structural lightness that continue to shape contemporary architecture.