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

The rise of a Profession within a ProfessionLiterature reviewThe Development of the Architectural Technology Discipline within the Profession of ArchitectureTherefore, a great deal of advanced knowledge regarding production methods andold tools has been lost with the shift of culture caused by the political andeconomical changes, but until recently society faced one long almost unbrokencultural development in Europe (Degn 1997 p. 210, Vadstrup 2005 p. 16) Adevelopment over a millennium after the collapse of the Roman Empire went onalong with the establishment and keepings of the monarchies. The UK and Denmarkofficially still have the monarchies, but functionally we now have democracies as aresult of the industrialisation and the relatively peaceful revolution that fortunatelytook place in our countries. Initially, the two countries shared the same king (a Dane)and Denmark has more or less kept the same royal blood line for the staterepresentation in the whole period. But something has happened in other contexts.Early in the industrial period a number of handicrafts were outstripped by thecompetition of the industry, but others have more or less remained up to the middleof the last century but are now finally more or less gone (Frampton 1980 p. 43).When Langberg (1978a p. 211, 212) in 1955 published the second volume of hisbook Danmarks bygningskultur II (The building culture of Denmark) 7 , he couldclaim that many rules still obeyed within the handicrafts were so old that there wasnot the slightest chance of figuring out their origin. For example the simplest rulesfor a carpenter’s use of the axe had such characteristics. The Danish way ofequipping a door with a lock was at least 200 years old, whereas shaping of thehanding had changed with the fashion many times in that period. He noted that manyof the Danish rules and habits came from outside the country due to the fact thatDanish craftsmen used to work abroad as journeymen for long periods and thatforeign journeymen worked in Denmark thus causing a significant exchange of ideas.Of course, only rules and ideas that were suitable under the Danish circumstancesregarding climate and resources would prove successful and survive in the long run(Jensen and Ganshorn 1987, Groll 1979 p. 215).7 Translated from Danish by the author43