Building construction
Construction is an ancient human activity which began as a functional need for a
controlled environment to moderate the effects of climate. Human shelters were at first very
simple and perhaps lasted only a few days or months. Over time, even temporary structures
evolved into highly refined forms eg the igloo. Gradually more durable structures began to
appear, particularly after the advent of agriculture, when people began to stay in one place for
long periods. The first shelters were dwellings, but later other functions, such as food storage
and ceremony, were housed in separate buildings. Some structures began to have symbolic as
well as functional value, marking the beginning of the distinction between architecture and
building.
The history of building is marked by a number of trends. Such as the increasing durability of
the materials used. Early building materials were perishable, such as leaves, branches,
and animal hides. Later, more durable natural materials such as clay, stone, and timber.
Eventually, synthetic materials such as brick, concrete, metals, and plastics etc were used.
The quest for buildings of greater height and span was made possible by the development
of stronger materials and by knowledge of how materials behave and how to exploit them to
greater advantage. Another trend involved the degree of control exercised over the
interior environment of buildings such as increasingly precise regulation of air temperature,
light and sound levels, humidity, odours, air speed, and other factors that affect human
comfort has been possible. Another trend is the change in energy available to the
construction process, starting with human muscle power and developing toward the
powerful machinery used today.
The present state of construction is complex. There is a wide range of building products and
systems which are aimed primarily at groups of building types or markets. The design
process for buildings is highly organized and draws upon research establishments that study
material properties and performance, code officials who adopt and enforce safety standards,
and design professionals who determine user needs and design a building to meet those
needs. The construction process is also highly organized; it includes the manufacturers of
building products and systems, the craftsmen who assemble them on the building site, the
contractors who employ and coordinate the work of the craftsmen, and consultants who
specialize in such aspects as construction management, quality control, and insurance.
Construction today is a significant part of industrial culture, a manifestation of
its diversity and complexity and a measure of its mastery of natural forces, which can
produce a widely varied built environment to serve the diverse needs of society.
The History of Construction
Primitive building: the Stone Age
The hunter-gatherers of the late Stone Age, who moved about a wide area in search of food,
built the earliest temporary shelters had circular rings of stones that are believed to have
, formed part of such shelters. They may have braced crude huts made of wooden poles or
have weighted down the walls of tents made of animal skins, presumably supported by
central poles.
A tent illustrates the basic elements of environmental control that are the concern of
construction. The tent creates a membrane to shed rain and snow; cold water on the human
skin absorbs body heat. The membrane reduces wind speed as well; air over the human skin
also promotes heat loss. It controls heat transfer by keeping out the hot rays of the sun and
confining heated air in cold weather. It also blocks out light and provides visual privacy. The
membrane must be supported against the forces of gravity and wind; a structure is necessary.
Membranes of hides are strong in tension (stresses imposed by stretching forces), but poles
must be added to take compression (stresses imposed by compacting forces). Indeed, much of
the history of construction is the search for more sophisticated solutions to the same basic
problems that the tent was set out to solve.
The agricultural revolution, dated to about 10,000 BCE, gave a major impetus to
construction. People no longer traveled in search of game or followed their herds but stayed
in one place to tend their fields. Dwellings began to be more permanent.
Heavier timber buildings also appeared in Neolithic (New Stone Age) cultures, although the
difficulties of cutting large trees with stone tools limited the use of sizable timbers to frames.
These frames were usually rectangular in plan, with a central row of columns to support
a ridgepole and matching rows of columns along the long walls; rafters were run from the
ridgepole to the wall beams. The lateral stability of the frame was achieved by burying the
columns deep in the ground; the ridgepole and rafters were then tied to the columns with
vegetable fibres. The usual roofing material was thatch: dried grasses or reeds tied together in
small bundles, which in turn were tied in an overlapping pattern to the light wooden poles
that spanned between the rafters.
Bronze Age and early urban cultures
It was the cultures of the great river valleys including the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, the
Indus, and the Huang Ho with their intensive agriculture based on irrigation that developed
the first communities large enough to be called cities. These cities were built with a
new building technology, based on the clay available on the riverbanks. The packed clay
walls of earlier times were replaced by those constructed of prefabricated units: mud bricks.
This represented a major conceptual change from the free forms of packed clay to the
geometric modulation imposed by the rectangular brick, and the building plans too became
strictly rectangular.
Bricks were made from mud and straw formed in a four-sided wooden frame, which was
removed after evaporation had sufficiently hardened the contents. The bricks were then
thoroughly dried in the sun. The straw acted as reinforcing to hold the brick together when
the inevitable shrinkage cracks appeared during the drying process. The bricks were laid in
walls with wet mud mortar or sometimes bitumen to join them together; openings were
apparently supported by wooden lintels. In the warm, dry climates of the river valleys,
weathering action was not a major problem, and the mud bricks were left exposed or covered
with a layer of mud plaster. The roofs of these early urban buildings have disappeared, but it
seems likely that they were supported by timber beams and were mostly flat, since there is
little rainfall in these areas..
Construction is an ancient human activity which began as a functional need for a
controlled environment to moderate the effects of climate. Human shelters were at first very
simple and perhaps lasted only a few days or months. Over time, even temporary structures
evolved into highly refined forms eg the igloo. Gradually more durable structures began to
appear, particularly after the advent of agriculture, when people began to stay in one place for
long periods. The first shelters were dwellings, but later other functions, such as food storage
and ceremony, were housed in separate buildings. Some structures began to have symbolic as
well as functional value, marking the beginning of the distinction between architecture and
building.
The history of building is marked by a number of trends. Such as the increasing durability of
the materials used. Early building materials were perishable, such as leaves, branches,
and animal hides. Later, more durable natural materials such as clay, stone, and timber.
Eventually, synthetic materials such as brick, concrete, metals, and plastics etc were used.
The quest for buildings of greater height and span was made possible by the development
of stronger materials and by knowledge of how materials behave and how to exploit them to
greater advantage. Another trend involved the degree of control exercised over the
interior environment of buildings such as increasingly precise regulation of air temperature,
light and sound levels, humidity, odours, air speed, and other factors that affect human
comfort has been possible. Another trend is the change in energy available to the
construction process, starting with human muscle power and developing toward the
powerful machinery used today.
The present state of construction is complex. There is a wide range of building products and
systems which are aimed primarily at groups of building types or markets. The design
process for buildings is highly organized and draws upon research establishments that study
material properties and performance, code officials who adopt and enforce safety standards,
and design professionals who determine user needs and design a building to meet those
needs. The construction process is also highly organized; it includes the manufacturers of
building products and systems, the craftsmen who assemble them on the building site, the
contractors who employ and coordinate the work of the craftsmen, and consultants who
specialize in such aspects as construction management, quality control, and insurance.
Construction today is a significant part of industrial culture, a manifestation of
its diversity and complexity and a measure of its mastery of natural forces, which can
produce a widely varied built environment to serve the diverse needs of society.
The History of Construction
Primitive building: the Stone Age
The hunter-gatherers of the late Stone Age, who moved about a wide area in search of food,
built the earliest temporary shelters had circular rings of stones that are believed to have
, formed part of such shelters. They may have braced crude huts made of wooden poles or
have weighted down the walls of tents made of animal skins, presumably supported by
central poles.
A tent illustrates the basic elements of environmental control that are the concern of
construction. The tent creates a membrane to shed rain and snow; cold water on the human
skin absorbs body heat. The membrane reduces wind speed as well; air over the human skin
also promotes heat loss. It controls heat transfer by keeping out the hot rays of the sun and
confining heated air in cold weather. It also blocks out light and provides visual privacy. The
membrane must be supported against the forces of gravity and wind; a structure is necessary.
Membranes of hides are strong in tension (stresses imposed by stretching forces), but poles
must be added to take compression (stresses imposed by compacting forces). Indeed, much of
the history of construction is the search for more sophisticated solutions to the same basic
problems that the tent was set out to solve.
The agricultural revolution, dated to about 10,000 BCE, gave a major impetus to
construction. People no longer traveled in search of game or followed their herds but stayed
in one place to tend their fields. Dwellings began to be more permanent.
Heavier timber buildings also appeared in Neolithic (New Stone Age) cultures, although the
difficulties of cutting large trees with stone tools limited the use of sizable timbers to frames.
These frames were usually rectangular in plan, with a central row of columns to support
a ridgepole and matching rows of columns along the long walls; rafters were run from the
ridgepole to the wall beams. The lateral stability of the frame was achieved by burying the
columns deep in the ground; the ridgepole and rafters were then tied to the columns with
vegetable fibres. The usual roofing material was thatch: dried grasses or reeds tied together in
small bundles, which in turn were tied in an overlapping pattern to the light wooden poles
that spanned between the rafters.
Bronze Age and early urban cultures
It was the cultures of the great river valleys including the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, the
Indus, and the Huang Ho with their intensive agriculture based on irrigation that developed
the first communities large enough to be called cities. These cities were built with a
new building technology, based on the clay available on the riverbanks. The packed clay
walls of earlier times were replaced by those constructed of prefabricated units: mud bricks.
This represented a major conceptual change from the free forms of packed clay to the
geometric modulation imposed by the rectangular brick, and the building plans too became
strictly rectangular.
Bricks were made from mud and straw formed in a four-sided wooden frame, which was
removed after evaporation had sufficiently hardened the contents. The bricks were then
thoroughly dried in the sun. The straw acted as reinforcing to hold the brick together when
the inevitable shrinkage cracks appeared during the drying process. The bricks were laid in
walls with wet mud mortar or sometimes bitumen to join them together; openings were
apparently supported by wooden lintels. In the warm, dry climates of the river valleys,
weathering action was not a major problem, and the mud bricks were left exposed or covered
with a layer of mud plaster. The roofs of these early urban buildings have disappeared, but it
seems likely that they were supported by timber beams and were mostly flat, since there is
little rainfall in these areas..
