It’s been about two and a half million years since the Stone Ages when people occupied caves and relied upon tools made of various kinds of stone. Throughout the development of humankind, we have seen remarkable feats in the area of building innovation, and we would argue the highlights of the building revolution have occurred over the past 40 years.
To fully grasp the radical effect of mechanization, we will need to return much farther than 40 years.
An extraordinary innovation for us was the arrival of hydraulic and pneumatic devices in the mid to late-19th century that resulted in the production of earth-moving equipment and other tools which are now commonplace for our industry. These 19th-century technologies have helped in significantly reducing the time and labour necessary for large scale projects.
At the height of the Middle Ages, architects, drafting technicians, master stonemasons, and builders created a number of the world’s most magnificent buildings using methods of construction and design which were revolutionary for their time.
For many centuries, these methods remained mostly unchanged.
There are a few jaw-dropping technologies in development that promise to revolutionize the building industry further. These vary from kinetic flooring which creates electricity by harnessing the energy from footfall to cement capable of absorbing and irradiating light energy to bricks effective at absorbing pollution by filtering the air, falling contaminating particles into a detachable hopper at the bottom of the wall.