The piece starts with an reminder about what building history is. This is followed by a brief exploration of the construction history community, to which I belong. Then I finish with a challenge and an opportunity in this field.
What is building history?
There is no precise definition of building history. No page yet exists about it on Wikipedia, for example, though there is a page about the history of the world’s tallest buildings. There may be many educational courses about building history or the history of buildings, but their content will vary greatly depending on many factors e.g. personal taste, cultural or political bias etc.
The disciplines associated with building history are multiple and inter-related. The most obvious one is probably architecture, specifically architectural history, as well as archaeology and building conservation. There is a lesser interest from civil, structural and mechanical engineering disciplines; in addition to the ‘pure’ history of technology, which focuses on the development of technical systems over time. There are other shades of knowledge in and around all of these.
The construction history community
The construction history community hasn’t been established for very long. A key driver for its emergence was the creation of a regular journal, Construction History, in the 1980s. People from a range of backgrounds with an interest in how (parts of) built structures have been designed and constructed, coalesced into an amporphous grouping which gradually started to define itself. Since then a number of societies and networks have been set up around the globe, the most recent one bringing together followers in Asia.
I am a member of the British, francophone and germanic sister bodies. I started with a degree in economic and social history in the 1980s, well before I knew about construction history. I was interested in the First Industrial Revolution that took place in Britain at the end of the 18th century, and within this the different types of new technology developed. This led me to undertake a Masters in the History of Technology in the 1990s on the first textile factories in Britain (see a Manchester example below); and then my current PhD on the early use of reinforced concrete in French and Belgian Belle Epoque urban buildings, including ‘daylight factories’.
Challenge and opportunity
There are many different themes that interest building historians. Some are united by a love of structure, function and even particular components, such as roofing, glazing or building materials. Others are more interested in the aesthetic attributes of historic buildings, or the societal circumstances of those involved in the design and construction process. Yet others take more of a strategic focus, wanting to understand how technical or artistic trends developed in building, and how they were sustained or replaced.
This presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is to produce coherence across this varied piece; the opportunity is to benefit from the interdisciplinary interaction required. This has become more and more necessary in a world threatened by the impact of global warming, which recognises no borders between people or types of knowledge. Building has, and buildings have, contributed to an overheating environment, with cement production still constituting a key source of additional carbon. We need solutions that both learn from the past and work together collaboratively for the future.
Can we do it?
There’s no other choice.