Neolithic construction
Construction in Ancient Mesopotamia
The earliest large scale buildings for which any real evidence survives have been found in ancient Mesopotamia. The smaller dwellings only survive in traces of foundations, but the later civilisations built very sizeable structures in the forms of palaces, temples and ziggurats and took particular care to build them out of materials that last. which has ensured that very considerable parts have remained intact.
Materials
Major technical achievements
The major technical achievements are in the construction of great cities such as Uruk and Ur. The Ziggurat of Ur remains one of the most outstanding surviving buildings of the period, despite major reconstruction work. Another fine example is the ziggurat at Chogha Zanbil in modern Iran.Construction in Ancient Egypt
Materials
Adobe (sun-baked mud brick) construction was used for ancillary buildings and normal houses in ancient times and is still commonly used in rural Egypt today. The hot dry climate was ideal for mud-brick, which tends to wash away in the rain. The Ramesseum in Thebes, Egypt(Luxor) provides one of the finest examples of mud brick construction, with extensive storehouses with mud-brick vaults surviving, all constructed with sloping courses to avoid the need for formwork.
The grandest buildings were constructed in stone, often from massive masonry blocks. The techniques used to move the massive blocks often used in pyramids and temples have been subject to extensive debate. Some authors have even maintained that the larger blocks are not cut stone at all but actually artificial stone made using concrete. This theory is very controversial and not widely accepted.
Technology
Although the Egyptians achieved extraordinary feats of engineering, they appear to have done so with relatively primitive technology. As far as is known they did not use wheels or pulleys. They transported massive stones over great distances using rollers, ropes, and sledges, with large numbers of slaves hauling the loads. There are no surviving Egyptian manuals so there has been considerable speculation on how stones were lifted to great heights and obelisks erected. Most theories centre around the use of ramps.
Outstanding Achievements
The pyramids are chiefly impressive for their enormous size and the staggering manpower that must have been employed in their construction. Of these the largest is the Great Pyramid of Giza which remained the tallest structure in the world for 3800 years (see List of tallest freestanding structures in the world). The engineering problems involved were chiefly to do with the transport of blocks, sometimes over long distances, their movement into location and exact alignment. It is now generally agreed that the skilled building workers were respected and well treated, but undoubtedly very large numbers of laborers were necessary to provide much of the brute force.Construction in Ancient Greece
The ancient Greeks, like the Egyptians and the Mesopotamians,tended to build most of their common buildings out of mud brick, leaving no record behind them. However very many structures do survive, some of which are in a very good state of repair, although some have been party reconstructed or re-erected in the modern era. The most dramatic are the Greek Temples.
No timber structures survive (roofs, floors etc), so our knowledge of how these were put together is purely conjectural. The spans are in the main limited and suggest very simple beam and post structures spanning between stone walls.
Fire clay was mainly restricted to roofing tiles and associated decorations, but these were quite elaborate. Fired bricks were not commonly employed. Very prominent buildings were roofed in stone tiles, which mimicked the form of their terracotta counterparts. While later cultures tended to construct their stone buildings with thin skins of finished stones over rubble cores, the Greeks tended to build out of large cut blocks, joined with metal cramps. This was a slow expensive and laborious process which limited the number of buildings that could be constructed. The metal cramps have often led to later failure through corrosion.
Building structures used a simple beam and column system without vaults or arches, which based strict limits on the spans that could achieved. However the Greeks did construct Arch Bridges.
Greek mathematics was technically advanced and we know for certain that they employed and understood the principles of pulleys, which would have enabled them to build gibs and cranes to lift heavy stonework to the upper parts of buildings. Their surveying skills were exceptional, enabling them to set out the incredibly exact optical corrections of buildings like theParthenon, although the methods used remain a mystery. Simpler decoration, such as fluting on columns was simply left until the drums of the columns were cut in place.
The Ancient Greeks never developed the strong mortars which were to become such an important feature of Roman construction.
Roman construction
Materials
The great Roman breakthrough was the development of hydraulic lime mortar. Previous cultures had used lime mortars but by adding volcanic ash the Romans managed to make a mortar that would harden underwater. This provided them with a cheap material for bulk walling. They used brick or stone to build the outer skins of the wall and then filled the space between with massive amounts of concrete, effectively using the brickwork as permanent shuttering. The concrete, being formed of nothing more than rubble and mortar was cheap and very easy to produce, requiring relatively unskilled labour, enabling the Romans to build on an unprecedented scale. They not only used it for walls but also to form arches, barrel vaults and domes, which they built over huge spans. The Romans developed systems of hollow pots for making their domes and sophisticated heating and ventilation systems for their thermal baths. Glass was commonly used in windows.
Organisation of Labour
The Romans had trade guilds. Most construction was done by slaves or freed men. The use of slave labour undoubtedly cut costs and was one of the reasons for the scale of some of the structures. The Romans placed a considerable emphasis in building their buildings extremely fast, usually within two years. For very large structures the only way this could be achieved was by the application of vast numbers of workers to the task.
Technology
Vitruvius gives details of many Roman machines. The Romans developed sophisticated timber cranes allowing them to lift considerable weights to great heights. The upper limit of lifting appears to have been 100 tonnes. Trajan's column in Rome contains some of the largest stones ever lifted in a Roman building and engineers are still uncertain exactly how it was achieved.
Outstanding technical Achievements
A list of the longest, highest and deepest Roman structures can be found at List of ancient architectural records. Roman building ingenuity extended over bridges, aqueducts, and covered amphitheatres. Their sewerage and water supply works were remarkable and some systems are still in operation today. The only aspect of Roman construction for which very little evidence survives is the form of timber roof structures, none of which are thought to have survives intact. Nevertheless its is generally agreed however that the Romans used triangulated roof trusses as this is the only way they could have covered the immense spans they achieved, the longest exceeding 30 metres (see List of ancient roofs).Medieval construction
In the Middle Ages of Europe fortifications, castles and cathedrals were the greatest construction projects. The Roman building techniques were lost.
Materials
Most buildings in Northern Europe were constructed of timber until c.1000 AD. In Southern Europe adobe remained predominant. Brick continued to be manufactured in Italy throughout the period 600-1000 AD but elsewhere the craft of brickmaking had largely disappeared and with it the methods for burning tiles. Roofs were largely thatched. Houses were small and gathered around a large communal hall. Monasticism spread more sophisticated building techniques. The Cistercians may have been responsible for reintroducing brickmaking to the area from Holland, through Denmark and Northern Germany to Poland leading to Backsteingotik. Brick remained the most popular prestige material in these areas throughout the period. Elsewhere buildings were typically in timber or where it could be afforded, stone. Medieval stone walls were constructed using cut blocks on the outside of the walls and rubble infill, with weak lime mortars. The poor hardening properties of these mortars were a continual problem, and the settlement of the rubble filling of Romanesque and Gothic walls and piers is still a major cause for concern.
Design
There were no standard textbooks on building in the Middle Ages. Master craftsmen transferred their knowledge through apprenticeships and from father to son. Trade secrets were closely guarded, as they were the source of a craftsman's livelihood. Drawings only survive from the later period. Parchment was too expensive to be commonly used and paper did not appear until the end of the period. Models were used for designing structures and could be built in large scales. Details were mostly designed al full size on tracing floors, some of which survive.
Labour
In general medieval buildings were built by paid workers. Unskilled work was done by labourers paid by the day. Skilled craftsmen served apprenticeships or learned their trade from their parents. It is not clear how many women were invomembers of the guild holding a monopoly on a particular trade in a defined area (usually within the town walls). Towns were in general very small by modern standards and dominated by the dwellings of a small number of rich nobles or merchants and cathedrals and churches.
Techniques
Romanesque buildings of the period 600-1100 AD were entirely roofed in timber or had stone barrel vaults covered by timber roofs. The Gothic style of architecture with its vaults, flying buttresses and pointed gothic arches developed in the twelfth century and in the centuries that followed ever more incredible feats of constructional daring were achieved in stone. The resulting thin stone vaults and towering buildings were constructed entirely using rules derived by trial and error. Failure were frequent, particularly in difficult areas such as crossing towers. The resulting buildings remain astounding tributes to their builders.
The pile driver was invented around 1500.
