We have come quite a long way to get to where we are now with many inventions and innovation all aimed at making things better and today we would bring to the spotlight how far we have come with respect to housings, it's Humans And Evolution guys, where we take a travel back through time.
Source: Pxhere.com
Sitting in that cozy home of yours, have you wondered how this home cane to be ? , with all the sky scrapers around us could you imagine that there was once a time when clay houses were the new cool?, join me as we look at the evolution of houses, well, a bit on what the future holds too.
How The Tale Began
A dwelling place have always been one of the essential needs of man, the early man was not known to be much of a builder but history have it that the early man made use of what he could find in his natural environment for survival hence the evolution of shelters to what we now see today began from man finding shelter in trees and caves
Yeah, if you were born at this age that cozy home of yours will actually be a tree :)
Staying under a tree would block the rays of the sun and go as far as reducing the intensity of the rain when it rained and also be a form of escape to animals which had not the ability to climb such heights , hence, trees actually showed man a place of shelter and as he voyage, rock caves were discovered.
The early man was seen to use caves as his home but this provides less protection with respect to wild animals
The discovery of rock caves was a step better to having that needed protection, but actually, rock caves had a major flaw, and that is making its inhabitant vulnerable to wild animals but on the brighter side, it was a simple form of protection as it provides shelter against changing weather conditions.
The Beginning Of The Engineering Of Shelters
As the world evolved and the thinking man put his brain to use, then came the need to bring something better with respect to his shelter, and this brought about the first shelter made by man.
The first ? , how dose it look like might just be the question in mind.
Actually, history had it that the first shelter made by man put what man could find in his environment to use, stones and trees were what could come to mind in constructing such shelters, these stones were placed at base such that they tend to firmly hold the cut branches of trees in place and these branches were arranged in a way to form quite a shelter and as the evolution of man continued with learning how to make simple tools, better design of this shelter was made.
More was put into making this shelter better with time and materials such as bones, big stones, and animal hide was used and this provided a better shelter with respect to comfort, stability and the need for security.
Just like you would have thought, the history just won't end there as human discovery would always bring about something better and that saw to the discovery of the properties of clay. When it was discovered that actually taking the earth wet and solidify upon drying brought about a stronger form of the soil, then came the clay blocks which saw to the use of bricks on the engineering of building.
The Earliest Civilization In Construction Of Buildings
Around 3100BC saw the use of dried bricks by the Egyptians to construct quite amazing structures. In the early Egypt, the ordinary Egyptian saw the building of simple houses using materials like clay bricks and wood whereas Palace of their kings and mighty men of their time lived on structures like temples and pyramids to entail the power they possess
Pixabay: The Palace of mighty men of Egypt were pyramids
As civilization improved a stunning discovery was made which far so much improved the durability of early house built with bricks, and that brought Assyrians to the picture of building. They discovered the idea of baking this clay bricks before using them for building which brought about a harder and durable brick, this led man notice the need for improvement of his bricks and that saw to the idea of glazing these bricks such that they are strengthened for usage.
And The Greeks Will Always Be There
The engineering continued with the Greeks improving in the designs of building and modifying the bricks used for building. Design modification introduced buildings with slanted roofs rather than the flat tops used by the Egyptians. The Greek structures according to history were made of dried clay in form of bricks or a framework make of wood, this framework is made to be strong with either use of fibrous materials and clay is further used to coat this framework so they are now stronger upon solidification.
The Greeks also contributed by building huge structures such as big public buildings and huge temples which were built for public meetings, theaters such as cultural performances. Most of these buildings are still standing till date.
The Romans Won't Be Left Out
When the Romans came to the engineering of building, they improved the Greek technique and also found a way to make these houses stand the cold by initiating a concept which will pass hot air or water through pipes in the roof and floor during cold weather so as to keep these house durable during the cold.
And Chinese came with their architecture
The Chinese made a huge improvement in the design of houses which was actually a little light to modern houses. The early Chinese house have their walls at right angles and have a form of rectangular enclosure.
The Ancient Songyue Pagoda temple, constructed AD 523, made of bricks
For bricks, the Chinese used dried clay and packed earth, this formed the reinforcement of frame which were made of wood and they were also used for foundation for their structures.
The Chinese roof were made without nails hence the were made by interlocking different pieces of the materials together. After the Tang dynasty, the use of wood in Chinese building was shunned which saw the Chinese using stones and bricks for their houses bringing about a stronger structure.
The Chinese houses were quite a consideration in the building of modern houses both with respect to architectural design, giving way to the middle ages which saw improvement in tools for construction hence better houses built at a quicker rate.
And Things Got Better When The Middle Age Emareged
On the collapse of the Roman Empire this led to the loss of the improvement which were introduced during their Era for several years, this saw the Germans buildings shelters supported with heavy timbers arranged such that there are spaces between the woods which allowed for clay to be used to fill those spaces.
As time went by, these German structures were made to be Castles having thick walls, these castles saw people building stables for their horses, workshops for making agricultural tools and weapons barracks for their soldiers, large dining hall, and as far as prisons for their prisoners all in a building.
The 15th century saw the Europeans building houses with timbers, having their foundation made with stones or bricks. The corners of the house were made of tree trunks for stability and beams mad of wood were used for support, crossbeams added to support and walls were made with wooden straps covered with mixture of straw and clay which saw to a fine finishing.
Things Changed With The Modern Houses
This period is said to be the base of human innovative and inventions with respect to technology as it saw many interesting human innovations and inventions come to play which served as the bedrock to building modern houses.
This period saw to the use of glass in a wide range for Windows mostly for big public structures and now many now viewed the construction of strong and durable houses with respect to the design and architecture rather than focusing on the materials for the construction.
A house under construction with wooden frame
As the industrial period came to play this brought about different ways of mass production of different material using introduced technological process and this was a major breakthrough in the construction of houses faster, hence many houses were built during this period. The use of the steam engine also affected quite a lot as it saw mass production of iron materials which were later used as the bedrock for support of structures.
Mass production of bricks also brought to an increase In construction as it saw the cost of bricks to be low, this period also saw to the introduction of the steam powered sawmill which came with quick processing of wood and standardization in production of these woods. Furthermore, nails were processed easily using machines and these two materials when combined form the bedrock for balloon framing which was a loved by many.
When the Balloon framing system was introduced, many loved this system because it brought about a shelter which is not only attractive but also easy to construct as you can find individuals constructing their houses rather than skilled carpenters.
Houses Of Today And The Future
In our world today, we now see shelters of different kinds, houses are no longer simple as they use to be, now we see high buildings which have their construction mad of either steel or concrete.
And now we can construct exquisite cities with sky scrappers, quite a journey
One thing which led to construction of modern houses was the idea to use steel for the framework of a building, and bricks used as support with glass materials of any other exquisite material used for its finishing, this brought about the modern look and feel of buildings constructed In our Era.
Now the design of building have taken a new phase as buildings of complex designs have been constructed using materials combination to make these houses not only strong but comfortable.
Recent times have seen houses built underground. Underground houses is now one of the most talked in the building of recent houses, these houses are constructed such that they sustain human habitation no matter how deep underneath the ground level, resources needed like air are made to circulate easily and there still is a promising future for the building houses below ground level.
These Are Some Predictions For Future Houses
Do you think we have reached our destination, I think man still have a long way to go and only time will tell our progress, let's take a quick travel to the future and see a bit of what it holds for the human race with respect to building.
Today have seen tall houses with their base inside water, this simply entails that in time to come, even the aquatic habitat which might not have been really considered for building house will see cities built on them, I mean floating cities which will balance the force of water and hence a human colony at Sea, that's amazing right :).
How about a city under water, I think a city under water, though might sound impossible to some will definitely be accomplished with time, as human have been seen to build submarine ships which have the ability of balance the forces of the sea,
and in time to come, building a city under water would not be as impossible as it sounds.
With the emergence of tall and mighty houses, in the nearest future, predictions are that a community of people might one day live in a single house, this might just be at the corner as today have seen the construction of houses to contain very large amount of individual and still maintain it's strength, hence in the nearest future, we will see a house for a community.
Talks have been brought about houses outside the earth, the colonization of Mars and other planets have been brought up with respect to the human population trend and this will only be achieved if houses will be constructed to suit the nature of those planets for human survival.
3D Modelling An Important Tool In Building Construction
The initiation of 3D modeling have brought a new approach to how engineering construction are being undertaken. 3D modeling simply implies the design of that to be engineered in a 3D model software which produces a soft copy of that to be designed even before construction.
Before now construction of houses have been seen to be done directly after the hand engineering drawing but this system do not allow for testing and optimization of these houses built, hence some natural occurrence may lead to the failure of constructed houses, but today, houses designed with 3D software can be tested for stability even before construction to test if they can be stable and this have lead to the Construction of stunning unbelievable structures.
Construction Engineering have got better with 3D Modelling and with this quite a lot can be achieved with respect to design of buildings for the future.
Conclusion
The evolution of houses have been seen take stages starting from when man lived under trees and in caves, down to what we now have with respect to our exquisite homes, the ideas just keep coming and in time to come we will just be amazed at what will have achieved
Before now, building houses took a toll on man as houses are seen to take quite a long period of time to complete but with recent ways of producing these materials in large quantities and also in building, exquisite house have been seen to come to come to life with less time compared to years back.
To see how far we have come and where we are headed, take a view of this video below.
During my research I came across how 3D printing have affected the construction of houses and it's so amazing to see that a house was constructed with 3D printed materials made by huge 3D printers, that also is a good example of how innovation and invention can go a long way in making things better and faster I know you just can't wait to be part of the homes of tomorrow.
Architecture will always see to new design of houses and only time will tell what the future of shelter holds for the human race.
This is a call for us to contribute to our various fields of study, we all are looking forward to a better tomorrow, a future of high technology and new innovations and this can only come to fulfillment if we work towards achieving that, hence we as scientists, engineers, and members of the Steemstem community should work towards that vision.
Did you miss Humans And Evolution : The Untold History Of Transportation, below is a quick link.
HUMANS AND EVOLUTION
Until my next article, Let's Steem It.
References
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