In Russian, хрустальный дворец (khrustalny dvorets), "crystal palace" (our translation), is the endpoint of science that the narrator describes: everything calculated, nothing to doubt. When he returns to it, he replaces дворец, "palace", with здание, "edifice": an edifice of crystal, eternally unshakable, before which one cannot stick out one's tongue on the sly. Against it he sets the курятник, "henhouse", which serves as shelter and not as a palace.
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