Niels Barrett PhD.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon University

The rise of a Profession within a ProfessionIntroductionThe Development of the Architectural Technology Discipline within the Profession of Architectureoriginal handicraft conditions. Vadstrup (2005 p. 37) claims reparation andrestoration to imply what he calls a special craftsmanship and of course it requires avery different kind of preparation and execution procedure than the originalexecution process did. To build a new car is a quite different thing than just repairingan old one where the goal normally is to replace old worn out parts with new almostidentical ones.Gideon (1967 pp. 163-290) described how the new industrial technologies and theresulting new materials influenced architecture in different parts of the western worldfrom the early 19 th century to our days. The development described was initiallyinfluencing the construction of buildings intended to be ‘outstanding’, whereashousing construction for ordinary people continued to use old techniques belongingto the handicrafts (Gray and Hughes 2001 p. 40). This can be noticed in mostEuropean countries inclusive the UK and Denmark, which are the two countries thisresearch will concentrate on as typical examples from the western world and as areasof special interest to the author.Langberg (1978b p. 221) stated that even after WWII the tools in use in the buildingindustry in Denmark hadn’t changed significantly for hundreds of years. Thus we cannotice a long standing competition between new techniques and materials and thevery old well tested methods embedded in the handicrafts. In Denmark it was notuntil the 1960s that the handicrafts of the industry successively gave up using the oldmethods and tools and got them replaced with new electrical driven tools to treatmore industrialised materials and components. In the UK the process began earlierbut also here, parallel with industrialisation and new techniques, the old methodswere in use until about the same time. This slow change was due partly toappreciation of traditional qualities. 1 Whereas the industry in general gave up the oldhandicraft businesses the building industry kept its small businesses and the illusionof them still being handicrafts even if the old techniques were not in use anymore.1 From another industry we can mention that the export of butter from Denmark to the UK because ofBritish conservative requirements continued to send the butter in wooden barrels assembled byhandicraft by Danish coopers until the early the 1960s. When this request was given up the business ofDanish coopery in general closed after having served society in probably more than 2000 years.(Fode.1995 p. 542)27