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When
Margaret (Molly) and James Joseph Brown purchased their
new home at 1340 Pennsylvania Street in Denver, Colorado,
they were happy to have bought a house with all the
modern conveniences. When it was built in 1889, it had
electric lights, a telephone, indoor plumbing (including
an indoor bathroom with hot and cold running water)
and forced heat and air. There was also a large, very
modern kitchen complete with both a coal-fueled cook
stove and an ice box to keep food cool. It was a large,
sturdy house made from local stone materials- Rhyolite
and Sandstone
.
Can
you imagine living in a house without electricity or
running water? That taking a bath was a luxury most
people never had? Or, that as the child you had to collect
firewood so your mom could cook dinner or boil the laundry?
Let’s take a trip back through time and see how people
have lived and worked, what they considered home, and
why the house that “Molly” bought and the house you
live in is so revolutionary and amazing…
Nature
provided early humankind with its first shelters. As
nomadic man kept on the move, following herds of wild
animals, he relied on what was around him for shelter.
If there were trees he could use branches and leaves
to build a shelter. In desert areas they would dig pits
in the earth. Caves provided the safest environment
of all and the knowledge of where they were located
was very important.
About
8,000 years ago humankind began to control the food
supply by planting crop foods and keeping domestic animals
such as goats and cows. This meant that they didn’t
have to move around to find food anymore, and this made
a more permanent home possible. Climate (the long-term
weather) still decided what kind of shelter was needed.
Available materials (like stone and wood) decided how
it was built.
In
the temperate climate (changing seasons, not too hot
or too cold) of Northern Europe shelter took the form
of stone, earth and timber (wood) structures. To keep
warm in the winter, they would move their animals inside
with them, hang skins on the walls and build fires.
In the hot desert climates such as in Egypt , they built
their houses to stay cool. Thick mud and stone walls
would keep out the heat and high ceilings inside meant
the rooms stayed cool. Cooking was done outside and
sometimes so was sleeping.
5,000
years ago in ancient Mesopotamia many new ways of living
were developed. People lived together in large groups
forming cities. They did this to increase their defenses
against nature and other people. Religion (a belief
in gods) was an important part of every day living and
newly built churches or temples became the centerpiece
of every city. And, the newly created art of writing
helped establish a history of mankind and how they lived.
Over
the next few thousand years, buildings dedicated to
a god or king grew larger and moreelaborate. Around
the world man was erecting the pyramids in Egypt (2500
BCE), Stonehenge in Neolithic Europe (2,000 BCE), and
cities on top of mountains in Machu Picchu , Peru (1500
BCE). Mankind found ways to use posts , beams , and
lintels to enclose larger spaces than ever before. Yet,
it was still massive, solid architecture where the building
itself was larger than the space inside of it; that
the “negative” space - the space between the form of
the building was not large enough to have it’s own presence.
It was architecture of mass, not space.
Your
Turn:
Post-and-Lintel
Construction was first seen in ancient Egypt
. It is said to come from an early building technique
where firmly bound bundles of swamp reeds were used
to support roofs in adobe structures. Builders eventually
switched the reeds to stone columns and could enclose
very large spaces. Look up post-and-lintel
in the glossary of terms. What famous structure
mentioned above is a good example of post-and-lintel
construction? Look around your house- how many post-and-lintel
examples can you find? (Hint: look at the doorways and
porches.)
Next: 500
BCE – 375 CE: The Greeks & Romans
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