Concrete

Extract

It is not without significance that in these days we no longer speak of the craft of building but rather of the “building trade.” As in most of the occupations of the working man there has been a revolution, so in building great changes have been made. It seems likely that the revolution in all branches of industry is ultimately traceable to a few common factors.

In this paper I do not wish to examine the morals of the industrial change as a whole, but rather to consider one small and apparently unimportant matter—what the use of concrete has meant to the human side of building. But. in passing, it is worthy of note that practically all these changes have one common result—they all deprive the workman of the exercise of his function as an artist. When something vital in the make up of man is treated as though it did not exist, the sociological consequences are nothing less than tragic. Unemployment over long periods results in something more than the lowering of material standards of living.

In the earliest architecture of which we know enough to consider it as a particular type—that of Egypt—is symbolised the social nature of the age which gave it birth. Most of the important factors in ancient Egyptian social life are reflected in the architectural remains from that time. Examination of a temple, for example, reveals an extraordinary area of construction, and this massivity of plan is repeated in elevation and perspective.