Building materials appear to evolve in bursts, driven by the needs of civilisations wanting to make statements with temples and impressive feats of engineering. This is different from other industries which seem to progress at a steady rate.
The Romans developed hydraulic lime mortar, which allowed them to build bulk walls with little timber framing. This period also saw the introduction of plaster.
Stone
Stone has a long history of use in construction and is among the oldest building materials. Its durability, resistance to water damage, and non-combustibility make it a valuable building material. But the material has its limitations. It has low compressive strength and can be vulnerable to freeze-thaw cycles, which can cause moisture infiltration and salt efflorescence.
During the Mesolithic period, the pace of innovation in stone technology began to accelerate. Homo erectus made new tools from stone, including points that could be hafted on shafts to form spears, and scrapers used for preparing hide and wood.
These new stone tools were more advanced than earlier bone and organic tools. Their making required more thought and planning than simply using an existing tool to help perform a task. This represents an important step toward humanity’s evolution into a species capable of creating tools to suit its needs.
Archaeological remains from the time show hunter-gatherers constructing primitive huts of flat stone slabs. These were often constructed on earth mounds of midden and covered with thatch or turf to provide durability and thermal insulation against the elements.
Wood
Wood has been an important part of our lives since the dawn of civilisation. It has helped build many gorgeous buildings, from the awe-inspiring wooden churches of Maramures to the ancient neolithic longhouses that still exist in Oslonki today. But, as the world has progressed and technology has improved, wood utilization has been fading away.
The reason for this has to do with its relatively low durability compared to other materials like baked clay and stone. It’s also a very flammable material, which is why it was eventually replaced with bricks and other more durable structures that were also more fire-resistant.
However, this didn’t mean that wooden buildings were going to be eliminated completely. They simply had to be adapted to modern needs. For example, if someone wanted to live in a wooden house they would just need to construct it with better quality lumber. And this would help to prevent common issues such as twisted wood and other structural problems.
The industrial revolution also brought new manufacturing techniques that allowed for more efficient use of wood. For example, plywood was developed, which is a combination of multiple thin veneers of wood that are glued together with the grain running in opposite directions. This allows the wood to have a more uniform thickness and reduces the anisotropy of the material.
Concrete
Concrete is used in many ways, from sidewalks and roads to foundations for buildings and more. Its history goes back thousands of years, even before the first Egyptian pyramid was built. This interactive timeline of concrete development shows some of the key milestones in the evolution of this building material and highlights historic structures constructed with it.
The earliest predecessors of concrete were materials created by ancient Egyptians, who used mud mixed with straw to create bricks and gypsum mortar to bond them together. These were then used to construct the pyramids, including the Great Pyramid of Giza. The Romans were also very proficient with concrete, though they didn’t use it the way we would today. They would construct their buildings with a combination of loose stone and concrete blocks, bonded together by mortar.
Around 200 BCE, the Greeks discovered a natural substance that could be used to make concrete. It was called pozzolan, and it reacted with lime to create concrete that hardened in water as well as in air. It wasn’t like the concrete we use today, however, and it was only really effective when confined to small areas.
After the decline of the Roman Empire, the techniques for making concrete were lost. It wasn’t until the Renaissance that Giovanni Giocondo, an Italian friar, tried to recreate concrete cement based on manuscripts he had found detailing ancient Roman construction methods. This was a success, and it set the stage for future developments in concrete technology.
Steel
While we can’t know exactly who “invented” steel (or even if it was one person or group), it is easy to see that this metal has been crucial in building up civilizations and making possible structures of increasing height and span. The evolution of this material can be traced back to the 13th century when early blacksmiths realized that iron would become harder and stronger when carbon was introduced during smelting in coal furnaces.
Throughout history, it was often used in weapons and tools but the Industrial Revolution sparked new uses for it as a building material. With the advent of coke in the 1700s to replace charcoal and wood in smelting, it became cheaper to create and the first steel factories were born.
The Bessemer process was developed in the 1800s, which led to lower-cost and higher quality steel. While no single individual can be credited with the invention of steel, Sir Henry Bessemer is widely considered to be its “Father”. His development of the open-hearth method for making steel allowed a more streamlined and efficient production that contributed to the Industrial Revolution.
This period also saw the creation of countless bridges and skyscrapers that were made of steel. With the advent of WWI, the demand for steel skyrocketed and the US was able to produce double the amount of steel in 1917 than it had produced 14 years earlier.