Developments in the art and science of construction have been accelerating rapidly over the course of the last two centuries. More buildings have been constructed during this recent period than in the whole of the preceding millennia of human history.
Tumultuous socioeconomic developments during the industrial revolution brought with them a multiplicity of types of buildings, including factories, railway stations, shopping galleries and water towers. New technologies and building materials developed during the industrial age now made it possible to build previously unimaginable constructions.
The industrial era has created an exceptionally rich heritage, and we owe it to ourselves and those pioneers of a bygone age to learn more about this heritage, to learn to value it. We should learn to understand it and use the lessons it contains in our modern society.
On the eve of the third industrial revolution, the heirs to the bygone industrial society must decide just what they wish to do with the heritage of the first and second industrial revolutions. Should they be demolished and replaced by a new, more modern heritage? Or should they be preserved, and if so, how and in what form?
Developments in the art and science of construction have been accelerating rapidly over the course of the last two centuries. More buildings have been constructed during this…
