A Look at Building Materials Used in Architecture
Author: John Published Under: History
Iraq is considered to be the oldest example of architecture in the World, rich in history and design. Since the chief commodity of Iraq, perhaps with exception of Oil, is sand, it is no surprise that these early builders found a way to use it in their creations.
Using brick and mortar, entire cities were built, which not only offered the basic comforts of life, but also served as places of worship and learning. Using bricks was not merely a convenient choice, but is was also very practical. Bricks last for thousands of years, as can be seen in the cities of Iraq. They are well suited to withstand sand storms, do not rot, and will not usually crack.
Brick has always been popular, but most places, with the exception of Iraq, relied upon wood in their buildings. Of course, to an extent this was again largely a matter of convenience, as trees were a ready supply of building material in other areas.
Wood, while very strong, does have its limitations, such as not being fire resistant and eventually rotting. So, most early wooden structures did not survive, with the oldest wooden buildings usually being around 1000 years old.
In Japanese cultures, it was not uncommon to destroy and rebuild their buildings regularly, so they remained in perfect condition.
Stone is another very common building material, which is still used today. Stone was a material that was readily available and was used in Egypt to build the pyramids, as well as throughout Europe, Greece, and Rome.
While the Egyptians usually used incredibly large pieces of stone, the Greeks were more likely to use a smaller block of stone, with arches and columns being a persistent characteristic of Greek architecture. However, it was the Romans who took the idea of the Arch to a whole new level.
Another tool that the Romans made heavy use of and that allowed them to be such adept builders was concrete. They discovered that a mixture of lime and clay, or sometimes volcano dust, would produce a very hard material when water was added and mixed with small rocks.
This created a material that was not only incredibly strong, but also resistant to fire damage. Their discovery, however, was lost with their culture, with concrete not being used again until much later during the 1700's.
Soon after concrete was rediscovered, the process of creating reinforced concrete was also invented. A gardener named Joseph Monier discovered he could greatly improve the strength of flower pots by adding steel bars and this discovery was quickly adopted in other building practices.
Traditionally, those who build with concrete have tried to make it as smooth as possible, so that the finished product is similar to stone, but this changed in the 1950's, when some began experimenting with using a much more raw concrete in building.
Perhaps even more important to the world of architecture than concrete, is the discovery of steel.
Today, steel has largely replaced concrete in most buildings, which offers the advantage of being very strong, but generally lighter than concrete. Another major advantage to building with steel is that it can be recycled. Steel had actually been around for hundreds of years before it began to be used in building, but early forms of steel had been much weaker, with the metal usually having a soft property.