Dear All,
Last time I wrote I followed the relationship between architects and builders through until about the 18th century- so I thought I would pick up there today. When we left them master builders in England were working as a whole building professional, often including designing roles in their work. Once we hit the nineteenth century though there is a boom in building in the UK- the industrial revolution, the urbanisation of the UK’s workforce this caused and the rapid expansion of the British Empire after the Napoleonic wars bought about a massive building boom. Not just of houses but of new typologies- workhouses, railway stations, worker’s villages, factories… and with this lots of work and business opportunities in construction.
Speculators, previously unconnected to building, began to take an interest in construction-at first just financially. Then there was a stockmarket crash in 1825 which was caused, in part, by the failure of speculative investments in Latin America including in what turned out to be an imaginary country called Poyais. It led to the closure of twelve banks in Britain, and much upheaval.
After this construction speculators began to take a more day to day interest in their investments- perhaps seeking something a bit more tangible. It’s at this point that you begin to see the emergence of the general contractor- the man who tenders competitively to carry out building works based on an architect’s design and then sub-contracts that work out to third parties.
This has two big impacts over time. The first is that what had been a close working relationship between architect and craftsperson gets a little more distant and a little more contractual. Drawings and specifications for building work have to be that bit more detailed as they are now further removed from the process of building on site.
The second is that the role of craftsperson begins to lose prestige. As general contractors take their cut the salaries get lower, being a master craftsperson goes from a respectable self employed trade on which one could support a family and which occasioned respect for its skill, to a salaried position in a more commercial enterprise in which craftsmanship was often valued less, and for which the salary was less likely to support your family in comfort.
There was a sharp decrease in the quality of building work at this time, a rise in complaints of cowboy builder type activity, of fraud- anything connected with building came to be seen as a bit dodgy- to the extent that it caused architects to start their own professional societies and to close the profession- with the clear guidance that no architect should be directly connected or involved with the building trade. So you see the end of architect-builders and of the remains of the medieval master builder role in the UK. Needless to say the skill level of the building profession as a whole dropped.
Then we get to the first world war when traditions and inherited skills of building crafts suffered a near fatal blow as men by the thousand die in the trenches in France and Belgium- but I think we’ll pick that up another time.
In other news, for anyone interested in the cladding crisis I have written two recent pieces for BD here and here considering the personal and professional upheaval surrounding the cladding crisis which i’ve been really thrilled by the reception of. I also read a really interesting piece in the Spectator recently about the housing 'mafia' and am interested to see what becomes of this soon to open neighbourhood building project
Until next time!
Eleanor
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Very informative as ever Eleanor. And love the colorised images of London!