Technology has defined an age

• Stone age
• Bronze age
• The ability to fashion material has defined
that age
• Marked stages in civilisation distinguishes
man from other mammals

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 Romans
• The ability of the Romans to hold such a large
empire for so long was due in large part to their
great feats of engineering
• A vast communication network 1.e. all roads
lead to Rome
• The use of hydraulic cement, beacons for
aligning roads, glass in windows, concrete
domes
• Was engineering their downfall? Lead
poisoning from their water pipes
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 Urban Existence
• We could not live in densely packed urban
environments without engineering
• As early as 1611, London was running out
of potable water. Thomas Myddleton
constructed the New River to bring water
from the springs at Amwell, Hertfordshire
to Islington to solve the problem

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 Technology in England
• The term meaning the ‘study’ or ‘science of
a practical art’ was not used in England till
1615
• Any development was on a trial and error
basis e.g. The gothic cathedrals
• Francis Bacon (1561-1626) believed new
inventions could be deliberately planned
and were not solely a matter of luck

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 The Royal Society
• His views led to the founding of the Royal
Society in 1620
• It laid the foundations of scientific method
• Bacon pleaded for the application of science
to industry
• Called on the Fellows of the Royal Society
to “ direct their studies to the glory of God
the Creator and to the advantage of the
human race.”
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 Age of Enlightenment
• The problems and benefits that resulted
from technology were debated and
discussed
• Initially it was embraced
• Later rejected as a cause of social ill by the
romantics like Wordsworth and Shelley

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 Industrial Revolution
• Prime example of how technology can
engender social change
• Development of a number of machines e.g.
The spinning jenny
• Steam as a power source led to the factory
system as we know it today
• Changed how and where people lived e.g.
Set working hours and time
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 Anti-technology
• Luddites (1811-1816) named after their
leader Ned Ludd destroyed machines
invented to replace their labour
• Weavers in France felt the same and used
their wooden clogs (sabots) to destroy the
new weaving machinery

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 Transport
• Developments in transport :
• The canal network
• Railways
• Made the transportation of raw materials
and manufactured goods much easier and
quicker

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 Changes to society
• Society changed from mainly agrarian to a
capitalist society with the majority of the
population living in towns and cities
• Led to division of labour
• Man selling his labour rather than a product
as in craft skills
• De-skilling
• Entrepreneurs became rich and powerful
rather than the landed gentry
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 Power
• Development of steam allowed factories to
run throughout the year regardless of
weather
• Development of gas lighting allowed
factories to work 24 hours a day

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 Health
• There were an number of cholera epidemics
in Britain in the mid-19th century
• The work of engineers, such as Thomas
Bazelgette, in creating a network of sewers
and water treatment works did more than
anything else to combat disease.

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 Social change
It has led to great changes to the social
framework through the development of:
• Various sources of power
• Modes of transport
• Labour saving devices
Resulting in a commuter society, global travel
and food network but also resulting in
pollution of the environment
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 Currently
We are wrestling with:
The changes computer technology has
brought to our lives
Moral decisions advances in biotechnology
are making us face
Along with the changing climate change and
the physical environment as a direct result
of technological development.

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 Technology and our age
• Our age does differ from former times in:
• QUANTITY- the number of people on the
planet
• The amount of industry
• The extent of knowledge

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 QUALITY:
• The value and enjoyment of work
• Leisure, culture and social life
• The concept of quality is difficult to explain
• Technology creates wealth, better food, health and
communications
• Does not necessarily make people happier
• Has resulted in ugly towns, boring jobs, mental
stress, industrial disease and pollution

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 Organisation
• We are not good at organising what we have
created.
• Science and technology cannot be seen as either
good or bad but are intrinsically neutral
• It’s man’s use of them that ensures whether it
benefits mankind or not
• Currently we are faced with a number of issues
that relate to how we will carry on in the future

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 Technology
• Since 1939 seven times as much money and effort
has been expended on science and technology as
in the whole of human history before that year
• 95% of all scientists and researchers who have
lived since the beginning of history live and are
active in their field today
• If you added together all of world industry since
the beginning of mankind and then dropped
everything that happened before WW2; the
difference would be slight. ie. Most development
has taken place after WW2
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 The results of technological
advancement
• Methods and resources of science, technology and
mathematics can be applied to almost any kind of
problem
• Through automation and use of machinery a great
deal of mental and physical work can be
performed mechanically
• Through mass media, news, propaganda,
entertainment and education can come into the
home or reach an audience at any hour of the day
or night

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 Learning etc
• Travel and telecommunications make
unlimited co-operation possible on a world-
wide scale. Increase in the concept of ‘one
world’?
• The study of philosophy, psychology,
sociology and language has been
transformed by the application of scientific
thinking and technological resources

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 Application of technology
• The public is seldom aware of choices in the
development and application of technology
• The term ‘ technological imperative’ suggests
specific technological objectives. The concept that
new technologies are inevitable and essential and
that they must be developed and accepted for the
good of society. e.g. Specific technological objectives, (higher
buildings, better roads, tighter environmental control) can become a
dominant concern and policy rather than providing directly for
people’s needs
• This can arise because of a large technological
product industry and a political system that needs ‘
quick fixes’ to meet target

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 Technological Imperative
The concept that new technologies are inevitable and
essential and that they must be developed and accepted for
the good of society

• Technological imperative becomes automatic and the

western society has developed a total dependence on
technology (Hales,1982)
• Technological approach drives the objectives of the
project. E.g. Building Design becomes concerned with
the integration of the building services plant rather than
the comfort of the users
• Is it changing? Are we now re-evaluating technology
• Let us look into Active and Passive solutions to
technological design in buildings
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 Active solutions
• These involve the use of technology, which is
added to provide for a particular need e.g. light
added to a building to specifically illuminate tasks
• Active solutions tend to be added to buildings etc.
so that they can be easily adapted or replaced to
meet that need better
• They tend to use a lot of energy, vulnerable to
failure and require maintenance support

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 Passive solutions
• These use technological thinking to develop the
whole building design to provide for needs e.g. a
building can be designed to use daylight for
illumination through of the design of building and
its envelope.
• These solutions are not flexible and can only be
modified by radical changes and re-development
• However, they are not dependent on energy, not
vulnerable to failure and require little maintenance
• Therefore sustainable

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 Technical fix
• Concept linked to the idea of the technological imperative
• This is where a technological solution is found to a problem and
causes problems of its own that are then solved by more
technology e.g. air-conditioning to prevent buildings overheating.
• The solution causes its own problems and these are solved by
more technology. Such solutions are name ‘Technical fixes’.
• Air conditioning using wet cooling towers for cooling needs to be
maintained well. If not maintained properly, are linked to
Legionnaires’ disease therefore biocide is put in cooling water.
This may cause corrosion in pipe work and therefore further
inhibiting additives are needed.
• Thus, Technological imperatives call for a cascade of technical
fixes
• These solutions can be more costly than the original solution,
(which can be to manage without air conditioning) and reduce its
effectiveness.
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 Technological impact analysis
A technological impact assessment can done by using the table
below. The columns represent the areas of effect. The rows
represent distances from the direct effects, both spatially and in
AA technology assessment can done using the table below.
time. It is important to identify the involvement in each area of
impact, in particular the people and groups who will benefit
and suffer from the technology.

The input for an example in air conditioning can be as given

two slides below
‘Design Technology and Development process in the built
environment through air conditioning’
 Environ Personal Organisati Social Economic
Physiological Families Investment return
mental psychological onal cultures or reward
Spacial Companies
Aesthetic Authorities Informal groups
Resources Political parties
Pollution Formal groups

List involvement
Eg; users
Extractors
Manufacturers
Distributors etc.

Direct Impact

2nd order
Same time,
different place
3rd order
Immediate future,
same place
4th order
Immediate future,
different place
5th order
Long future
 Environ Personal Organisati Social Economic
Physiological Families Investment return or reward
mental psychological onal cultures
Spacial Companies
Aesthetic Authorities Informal groups
Resources Political parties
Pollution Formal groups

List involvement Building itself Building users Resident organisation Work group Capital cost
Eg; users Local environment Local residents Building owner
Materials for Family group Running cost
Extractors Manufacturers Manufacturer
equipment,
Installers Installer
Manufacturers Energy
Maintenance
Distributors etc. Refrigerant Maintenance

Direct Impact Space Fixed indoor Broke up old Running cost

reduction in environment work groups Improved productivity
building Change in Reduction in net lettable area
Sight of building form Increase in rent
external
cooling towers
and sir grills
2nd order Pollution from Legionnaire’s
Same time, different place power station disease
Changed
expectations
3rd order Sick building Allowed larger Centralised offices
Immediate future, same syndrome organisations More parents
Allowed office working away from
place technology home

4th order
Immediate future, different
place
 An example- the development of
high-rise structures
• What generated this new structural form?
• Partly the advent of the steel frame
• High land costs/ demand for space in american
cities
• Iron frames had already been used for bridges,
factories and warehouses since early 19th century
• Development of steel with good tensile properties
allowed continuous structural frames to span
greater distances and rise to greater heights
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 The problem and answer
• These required people to climb lots of stairs- took
time and effort
• At the same time as the steel frame was developed
so was the passenger lift.
• Steam-driven hoists had been used in factories for
years- but were considered unsafe
• Safety lift was invented by Elisha Otis in 1854
• This included a feature that would stop the lift
platform if the rope broke

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 The demands
• The high-rise buildings placed demands on
the services of the building
• There was a need and desire to control the
temperature and air humidity in the building
• Years of development of other technologies
led to the first fully air-conditioned
building, the Millam building, San Antonio,
Texas in 1928

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 Developments
• Mechanical ventilation of mines started
about 230 years ago.
• This was a stimulus for the design of fans
and understanding airflow in ducts
• Ventilation was needed in Victorian
buildings to remove the heat and
combustion products from gas lighting

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 Refrigeration
• Mechanical refrigeration was first
developed on a commercial scale to
produce artificial ice in 1848
• Ice was used in ventilation ducts to cool
buildings
• Early machines used ether, then ammonia
and freon by 1931

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 Air conditioning
• The ability to control humidity was set out in a
patent by Carrier in 1906
• He solved the problem of controlling temperature
and the water content of the air at the same time.
• Air conditioning delivered the environmental
conditions but at a cost of internal space by
ductwork and plant rooms
• Led to a reduction in lettable area and made the
buildings less economic

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 Fluorescent lighting
• Development in lighting by the introduction
of the fluorescent tube by GEC in 1938
reduced the heat output and therefore the
cooling load so the conditions could be met
by economically sized air-conditioning

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 Concerns

• Number of adverse pressures on the use of air-

conditioning
• High energy use- depletion of natural resources
• Pollution of the external environment- greenhouse
gases and acid rain
• Associated with sick building syndrome
• Legionnaires’ disease risk from wet cooling
towers if not properly maintained

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 Passive solutions
• Now the attention is turned to passive
solutions
• The aim is to handle internal heat gains and
the external solar gains through good
building design
• Return to naturally ventilated buildings

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