Modernization in the Construction Industry
2021-07-16 FARS Engineering
“Change is the only permanent thing in this world.” – Heraclitus, Greek Philosopher
The status and condition of the world now is a lot different to that one, two or even ten years ago. We live in a world where the only thing that’s permanent is change. The seasons are changing, the world is evolving, and the only way that the world is moving is forward. The economy, on the other hand, is also promptly catching up. From having postage mail as the only means of communication to the World Wide Web which is limitless, the world has truly adjusted to the needs and wants of society. People’s perspective on “necessities” have changed and parallel to this change is the changes in the business sector. Of course, businesses have to start somewhere, and it is usually at the bottom.
As society modernizes, the demand in the construction industry also rapidly increases. In the earlier years, start-up companies would usually only occupy one room in a one-story commercial building to house their workforce. Eventually, when their business becomes fruitful, they commence the planning stage of their first expansion. They will start with hiring more employees to execute their proposed expansion and to effectively and efficiently do so, they will have to prioritize expanding their workplace first. This means that they will have to either relocate to a bigger commercial place or expand the current one. From one room, to one floor, to possibly an entire building, this is what gave rise to skyscrapers that we have now. It, quite literally, started from the bottom.
How did the construction industry keep up with the ever growing changes in modern society? The first step was also starting from the bottom.
Manual labor, defined as manual work or physical work done personally by humans themselves without the use of any machines and working animals, is the first and most powerful engineering tool. It has been around since time immemorial and it remains to be, up to this day, the most accessible form of engineering tool. In fact, since it is the most attainable means of construction, it remains to be utilized up to the present day. In ancient history, technical expertise, if not at all present, was very limited.
Construction projects were only accomplished by the employment of men themselves with the use of their own hands. There was a scarcity of able men to execute projects, hence the construction time was longer than desired, but they had to make do with the available resources in order to finish the projects.
Soon after, man realized that they have to determine other means to speed up construction, hence they started utilizing animals to aid their works. During this era, there was a high and advantageous result in using animals especially in transportation, so as a result the construction time decreased but not significantly. Man realized that it was not enough. During the present day, there are laws that protect animal welfare. In fact, in some countries it is illegal to exploit animals in any form, including labor.
Due to these constraints, man has continuously invented different tools to aid their construction. One of the main constraints was the transportation of resources. It was, indeed, difficult and time consuming to transport materials such as wood manually. As provided in evidence of prehistoric and ancient civil engineering, the first milestone in civil engineering was the discovery and invention of a wheel which was first introduced while man was constructing the pyramids in Egypt. It decreased the construction time significantly. From this discovery, inventions upon inventions emerged from different countries which eventually led to the revolution in the industrial world.
As an effect of the revolution, from projects that took months or even years to build, it can now be finished and polished in just a matter of weeks. The construction industry has adjusted to the fast and ever changing demands of the modern world. Transportation, which used to be the main limitation in construction, was no longer a problem. As a matter of fact, there are means for almost all types of goods to be transported depending on its weight and size.
Discoveries and inventions have been readily patented which paved the way for the development in machinery. Now, there’s a machine for almost everything, there are tools for every task, and there’s a solution to every problem. The constraints were provided with numerous solutions, and the hurdles became solvable in just a short span of time. The time to construct infrastructures significantly decreased and the cities, which used to be small towns, became highly urbanized and developed.
The human mind is truly remarkable.
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