For as long as there have been civilisations there has been construction, and the evolution of how we create structures has been a process of evolving existing technology and revolutionary new ideas.
From the earliest shelters to works such as De Architectura all the way through the Industrial Revolution and up to the present day, there have been an endless number of developments, radical ideas and innovations that have created the construction sites we know today.
Here are some of these radical changes that have enabled digger hire, modern building sites and shaped the modern world.
Prefabrication
The popularity of prefabrication tends to ebb and flow, but it has been used for centuries as a way to create buildings and structures much faster than it would take to arrange and build on-site, which leads to lower costs and much lower construction times.
Some form of prefabrication or at least pre-preparation of building materials has existed for thousands of years and is believed to have originated with the prehistoric timber Sweet Track in Somerset circa 3800BC.
However, arguably the moment when prefabrication’s benefits were realised and taken full advantage of was in the recovery of Baixa after the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755, where prefabrication was used at a scale never seen before.
Multistory buildings with anti-seismic features were manufactured outside of Lisbon before being transported into the Portuguese capital and assembled once they reached the site.
This concept of having complete houses that are assembled on-site was popular in 19th century Australia, late 19th and 20th century America, and in the UK after the Blitz of the Second World War reduced entire districts to rubble.
Prefabrication has seen a resurgence again with the rise of sustainable building materials that are perfectly suited to be pre-cut, such as timber.
Mechanisation
The Industrial Revolution brought many different technologies to the construction industry, but one of the biggest transformations to the construction industry was the result of portable steam engines, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering, and the internal combustion engine.
These replaced the shovel, used since antiquity as the primary earthmoving machine despite advances in cranes, levers and pulleys to help make moving building materials easier.
Whilst there were early examples of this, the most famous, most used and most transformative tools came with the development of the motorised tractor, the internal combustion engine and the many construction tools that developed from it, such as the wheel loader and the bulldozer.
Since JCB’s inception in the 1950s, construction has relied on less manpower but a highly skilled team of construction workers working with heavy machinery to create ever more ambitious structures.
Personal Protective Equipment
For an unfortunately long time, construction safety lagged long behind construction technology and innovation, as it was not encouraged by either construction workers themselves or the companies they worked for.
According to a common urban myth, the author Franz Kafka, author of Metamorphosis, was the unlikely inventor of the hard hat whilst working at the Worker’s Accident Insurance Institute in Bohemia, and managed to reduce workforce deaths to 25 per 1000 employees.
Whilst this story is unlikely given how much Mr Kafka hated working for the WAII and there are no records confirming this connection, which is odd given his later success, the hard hat would emerge in the early 20th Century.
In 1919, Edward Dickinson Bullard would create a “hard-boiled hat” inspired by his son’s combat helmet, made of steamed canvas, glue and black paint and would help to protect people in shipyards and on construction sites.
By 1931, hard hat use was mandated for workers on the massive, dangerous Hoover Dam site, and PPE has evolved ever since.
Whilst there are often reminders of just how dangerous a construction site can be, the development of PPE and a legal obligation to provide a safe working environment as enshrined in the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, construction sites have strived to become even safer.
Sustainable Building Materials And Embodied Carbon
The construction industry’s most recent transformations have focused on sustainability and developing ways to construct buildings without causing too much damage to the planet.
This has included looking at older building materials for inspiration, such as straw, timber and earth, environmentally sustainable new materials such as hempcrete and ferrock, as well as combinations of the two such as glulam and cross-laminated timber.
Along with this has been a focus on whole-life carbon footprints, which focus on the carbon emissions of the raw materials, transportation, construction, the life of the property and its final demolition.
Using these principles will not only help the Earth but can help reduce construction costs, improve occupant health and help meet high housing demands.