First thing we have right now with you
is a professor practiced in the school

building construction of college
architecture prior to this appointment you

ran an international construction
consulting company with offices of

all five continents in teaches a class on
it in the construction industry is past

present future and is developing
the curriculum for a new graduate degree

in construction program management or
broader getting the traces of its medieval

cast for possible out of this crime that
country's history quickly followed and

interesting have maintained that whether
this is a punishment or reward for

us to take it as a reward
because everybody's looked for.

That we're going to take account of
this through a thousand years of

history fifteen of you ready for

the ride my teacher because

of the knowledge in total the history
of the construction industry

which is actually a bit of
a misnomer wanted to call it was

the construction industry deconstructed
its past present and future.

But then I was confronted with somebody
said that it's been banned of those that

are not and

they said what's it mostly about is a bit
of adversity about history some history of

the construction of others go with the
promise behind this course is that this

causes this is open to
engineers architects and

building construction students
from ice is there we're going to

make their career in the construction
industry and I went to the dean and

said that I was appointed the best
practice don't you think it's a good idea

that we should teach them something about
the industry into which they're going to

make their careers how it delivers
its product it's organized that

why we do the things we do in the industry
and because it catches but it didn't.

So I've been teaching this course
you know about five years.

And it's something

it's probable that I put a lot of
emphasis on history because of

my background of being a European would
never have a greater sense of history

though I have to say that sense of history
was a bit upset recently by the reports

in the press of the serve it in
the British high school seniors and

the monks one of the questions was who was
the leader of the Continental Army during

the American Revolution against this
president and the bulk of the ox's with

Denzel Washington next the stuff they
do they're not so smart on history.

We really think anyway.

And sometimes the students say go what's
all this history business why are you

doing it and then give them five good
reasons as to why we should be giving

history much more respect than we do and
if you look close their histories to

predict the future of the last nonsense if
was correct then the historians would be

the ones living in Buckhead a hundred
foot yachts they ducked and so

on to their path or to preparing for
it by understanding how things change and

what are the factors that caused this
gives us great insight into what's been

there all these things to learn from
mistakes of the band and past and

that we've done very significantly in the
construction industry most of the codes

that we have and regulations come as
a reaction to something that govern wrong

and two other things that I get
really important especially from

my students the construction industry is
not an industry that has a very good press

doesn't have a very good image and I could
even tell the truth as being old fashioned

craft based and have talked about the and
but it just struck me thinks

it's one of the oldest industries and
civilization.

And there have been some very great
deeds that have been done and

these we shouldn't forget and also to
instill a sense of pride in the industry

into which the students who go
there are various Well very

bungalows where should we not where
should we stop the story tempting but

it was to go back to times and and

this indeed we do and we study
the history of architectural design and

there is not a shot of
a Superior Court in Washington.

You can hardly tell the difference
between the two of them

designed by caste Gilbert and
but they processes and

procedures that we used to do in
Britain Roman times were lost.

Following the collapse of the Western
Roman Empire the end of the forced entry

route to roughly one thousand and and

all the skills and knowledge and
talents were lost during that period so

it is really to the medieval period that
we must look to discover a consistent

threat that we can follow
through to today and

I'm going to put aside
the beginning of that period about

one thousand through about
thirteen fifteen and or

about sorry about the eleven hundred to
about thirteen fifty and at the beginning

of this period we see this extraordinary
boom in construction in Western Europe

not actually driven by keeping crazy assed
ACOA building churches cathedrals hospices

on the streets notaries it's a cetera but
also not forgetting the causes of the for

the case to going on the same time and
one of the reasons for this.

Well for us was the spread of Christianity
the growth of the population during

an extraordinary time in the thirteenth
century and West in Europe when

productivity agricultural productivity
increased and that that in part to.

An increase in the population was a period
of relative tranquility compared with

most best European history or
centuries before and often

there was also another interesting feature
of this period was the rediscovering

part of mathematical skills
which kept their cousins by

the Arab Spring that hear
from the Greeks Romans and

this was rediscovered because without
their skills they couldn't have built

these fabulous structures
the knowledge of the arithmetic and

particularly of geometry it was actually
like actually building these buildings

and in in trunks alone.

There were eighty major cathedrals like
not true it was by no means the biggest It

was built and yeah it was in many
contenders the biggest of them all

built to house the entire population
of any team that ten thousand people

and have of course talking of blue rich or
so.

Schapelle I'm not going to last.

I usually ask my class to spend champagne
sometimes Chapelle in Paris and

one might go up and here I'm going
to say who hasn't been to Sasha and

if you happen you really need to go
as an extraordinary piece of work and

well that's objective of the story and

he wasn't caught certainly in
France in England of course and

all the structures were being
put up York Minster Canning

who knows it well because those are the
spirit of them taking over a hundred

years to build it because interestingly
enough they put a bill passed and

they needed to Sasha that was built in
just that he just might use his own so

he could do that because he lives
in my view most beautiful place.

He asked structures the big sky.

Chapbooks extraordinary holding

in that building that is is
let's check in with you Steve.

So they were capable of
Great Britain things of that time.

Well this led to the framework of
an industry beginning to develop and

we're just very candid through
these characteristics again I'm

not agent of the construction but
by was by the others that is.

There were separate project managers
that were caught in Texas that were in

the separate building trades began
to form and specialize ations and

all the carpenters the masons to kill
a the painters the glaziers and so

on and they began to protect themselves
from the gills that built up around them.

Of those trades of continued right
through to this day because you want

to save them getting the designs
you want to look back at those

buildings people are amazed that you have
to have an architect to design those

fabulous buildings they have to draw
a complete set of documents and

drawings for they were actually
built a little designs were

done actually done by nations
sometimes by carpenters and

the designs were basically of all during
construction taking a hundred years to

build one of those cathedrals you're
going through three generations.

There was no way that there could
be any significant continuity and

each point that is going to go in you can
see this study many of these buildings

very carefully contracted to
separate by each trade and

gender of labor of materials
were supplied by the other list

because the nations in the caucus etc
were not well endowed with capital and

so the others were a form
supplied to payment was bite.

Three methods of payment very similar
actually to what we still do today

by the day of your cost plus the day.

Thank you.
The price of peace to a piece of work you

were or what they call by the great
witness give them some fiction writers

and the schedules of those who
are very relaxed at this make

the management a lot easier.

The schedules are relaxed largely because
of the funding problems that they had

of raising money to build these
extraordinary constructions Well

there's pretty much to be much the same
for the next five hundred years or so

except we begin to see is the slow in
the urgency of the specialization for

design architects and
engineers begin to evolve first and

when they saw this of the and that in
England the progress of the European

countries you have to think
in this into shock effects of

this nation's period for
severe ran on the right.

You to go.
Jones interesting enough although many of

these designers were talented
Masons decided that they could

probably make more money by doing design
than carving and laying stone but

Brant himself as a professor of astronomy
at Oxford University turned his

hand to design and oversee this
magnificent successful at it at a go.

Jones was it was the stage design and
so we slowly see the in the emergence

of an architecture profession I
think much like you see it today.

Well this approach was brought to the
American colonies in sixteen zero seven

of the first expedition arrives at
the you only for those two ships.

I think it is six carpenters
two stonemasons and

one Berkeley and
the as you well know from history that.

A rough time in that first year.

Rumor has it that only one of them
actually survived and fortunately

it was the cough and was very quickly.

It was discovered that he and they reckon
principal construction material would be

with every step that you could in a square
or climbed up a tree in Massachusetts.

It could go all the way over to Bill
annoyed with the touching route that was

so much with the wonderful as well but

the needs of a columnist with pretty
simple and they had to be modifications

to the approach that they were using
due to the distances that were of all

the terrain itself hostile
climate comparison with Europe

transportation difficulties and
of course then the use of

this slow universe they brought
their fashion example and

their their water and or whatever or

practices that were using in the fashion

quickly disappeared into those because
it caught fire very easily and so

it was a result you never see any
that just jumping ahead again.

Now I'm sorry because we're trying to get
through this rather quickly is we move

right ahead to the American industrial
revolution and there's not a lot of change

that takes place until this point in
time in the late nineteenth century and

this begins to drive that crazy part
of the construction of all kinds

of big railroad moves across railroads
the started modelling the big boom and

railroad construction was in the
eighteenth seventy's the construction of

the of the mills in the south in
the northeast of the beginnings

of the skyscrapers the very first
steel building in Chicago eighty.

By the enormous industrial blocks
that were being built and this causes

three big changes in the industry
the fight and citizen the industrialists

of building these the speculators building
the office building the railroad often

they wanted the price of from they didn't
want to wait for the project is finished.

They wanted a price to be getting so
they knew what they were getting into this

meant that a complete set of designs
have to be produced in order that price.

Given And it also led to the in
the edges of general contractors

Strangely it may seem this is the youngest
of all the components in the industry

the American Association of general
contractors most important of 1980's.

So General contractors come along they
marshal together all the trades and

conduct themselves taking the risk of
putting in a single price to do the work

and have the design is there not up front
and they did a fixed price to carry out.

Well once again you jump ahead to
the end of and again not much changes.

It's a lot doesn't have to characters
to last built so I had a couple of

major was a strong supporter
of construction tomorrow.

And we've got the post World War two with
the again huge boom in construction but

it is just three examples
of that the Cold War

the I.C.B.M.
missile complex it is extraordinary

challenge to be built the Interstate
Highway System forty three thousand miles

of it built ironically almost exactly
the same mileage as the West and

the no questions the Roman Empire
road system but built in

the too much shorter period of time and
of course the his vision of living highly.

The beginning of the expansion
into the suburbs and so

on and what comes with this is
a lot of unintended problems.

First what happens is inflation
of the unions who have

been held under control during
the war by legislation on wages go.

This is a very powerful of this time
they bring in construction to a halt

over the mountain that the contractor
simply passed prices off to the owners and

then life goes on strikes again.

And there's the power of the unions to
extract the bounty that they get and

then we begin to see towards
the sixty's and seventy's

the lawyers discovered constructions
of the field for their talent.

No talents are overheated and
we see a big wave of that occasion

hearing to see what is the well
what this needs to do is the owner

of all the owners that stand up and
say we're not going to take it anymore.

You're not just going to
cost long to you not.

We're fed up with these strikes and this
interruption of the very of the project

with fed up with having two of
those with lawyers to fight

legal cases and something's got to
change that they put their foot down and

say it's going to change.

We're talking now about the the late
sixty's and during the seventy's and

those do not change still
affecting the industry today again

history today is also lighted with
another revolution if you wish.

Another industrial revolution
the mighty revolution that is as usual

construction is one of the last to take
up new ideas that are coming into it and

with a vengeance information technology
is influencing the way we do.

Designed the construction and
the way that we handle the process of

structure itself and was discovered do
with the medieval times because we now

begin to see some echoes of caring
going back to medieval times

I mentioned that there were no designs
of were there with drawings yes.

Mostly they were the pictures of all
the people wanted there are three

thousand existing drawings of
the medieval construction in

the existing Europe the one of them is
a dimension of it it's the whole idea is

that it was just an idea that
I should go ahead and come in.

Given that and

have visited the feature also of some of
these major cities of projects because

the tracing of this is that depiction of
the tracing flow from York Minster in

England is another one of
course because the drilling

in France where you can see
the have plans here of tracery wind

can see that this has been used in several
different pieces of construction the whole

idea was then building a model a model of
what needed to be done to getting a sense

as to how that can be done and
also extensive use was made

of good models to depict what needs
to be done to the to the workforce.

This is a model of most of the later and

here I know that most of the others
of course don't exist anymore.

But this is going to do with
today with exactly this.

We are going back to the model going back
to modeling features of what we want.

Now we have discovered pick buildings
in three dimensions instead of

two dimensional drawings.

We've got the ability to integrate
various components of the design to

look at things like trash detections For

example here we've gone by just going
through and actually going to change.

You can pick this up before that it
creates a major problem potentially

dedication to the very heavy use of
the modeling information modeling is being

used these drawings have not only have the
international depiction of a building but

they have information about the most
information about the steel and

so on is imbedded in that model and it's
only really just beginning to happen in

the industry but it is and they do
revolution and a very very exciting

news occurring second thing it's
doing is it's creating the lead for

different the ease of
carrying on construction on

the old medieval things it was
very much of a very much of and

I'm sure many of you who've either read or
seen him.

What's called the pillars of
the earth my life can follow and

he did a very good job of describing
you know long long range but

the page vote the building of this
cathedral in the world was a Kingsmen

well because anyway though it was a very
much of a collaborative affair that

people who work together in the in
carrying out this will be it.

Beginning to see occurring
in the industry today.

The classic means of construction
was always the triangle

video are up here and down would be
the building team the contractor and

his team over here with the architects and
engineers the designers that the contracts

get that there be no contract between each
to have the obligations set up to deal

with one another and so on the this that
that is that all kinds of problems and

issues and everything first came together
in terms of design build put them together

as an architect and
contract just now we're seeing this

move towards integrated project delivery
whereby the owner actually becomes part.

The construction team that he shares in
the risk stead of putting the risk of

the contractors and the designers
beginning to accept that risk.

You see exactly a return to

the well I think you're right on
the nose in the minutes there.

And so really we've moved from this one.

I love this little graphic
it's by fifty six.

That was a French illustrator of
children's books actually has an enormous

amount of heat on it because look
at that half an hour almost and

very unused informed by and
has the foundation in Shanghai of

what was to be the tallest building
in the of the very moment and

I think the similarities in Italy that

the way trains lots of people and

and we're beginning to see
the changes that as I say the US now.

Thank you very much.