James Bartlett

“ Although the styles of architecture have varied at different periods, buildings, wherever similar materials are employed, must be constructed on much the same principles. Scientific knowledge of the natures and properties of materials has, however, given to the modern workman immense advantages over his medieval brother-craftsman, and caused many changes in the details of the trade, or art of building, although stones, bricks, mortar, &c., then as now, formed the element of the more solid parts of all edifices. ”

“ An arch of masonry, however large it may be, is not necessarily a piece of construction complete in itself, for it would fall to pieces without abutments. Thus a bridge consisting of a series of arches, however extensive, may be but one piece of construction, no arch being complete in itself without the collateral arches in the series to serve as its abutments, and the whole series being dependent thereby upon the ultimate abutments of the bridge, without which the structure would not stand. ”

“ An architect should have a scientific knowledge of the various soils he may meet with, such as clay, earth, silt, rock, gravel, chalk, &c., so that when the trial holes are dug out on the site, he can see the nature of the soil, and at once know what kind of a foundation to put to the building, and the depth to which he must go to get a good bottom. ”

“ It will be clear from this that if a building is to be erected upon rock as hard as the main constituent of the walls theoretically no expanded footings will be necessary; if upon chalk, upon strong or upon weak gravel, upon sand or upon clay, the footing must be expanded with reference to the power of resistance of the structure to be used as a foundation; whilst in or upon made ground or other loose and badly combined or imperfectly resisting soil, a solid platform bearing evenly over the ground, and wide enough not to sink into it, becomes necessary under the constructed footing. ”

“ He should be able to control and manage both the men and materials; and briefly, in a builder, as opposed to an architect, the constructive knowledge should predominate.
On large or important works it is usual to have a clerk of works or delegate from the architect; his duties are to be on the works while they are in progress and endeavour by constant attention to secure the use of the best materials and construction, and to report to the architect for his instruction any difficulties that may arise. ”

“ The idea is to be able to arrive at a lump sum for which the builders will undertake to erect the building. It is of frequent occurrence, in fact it occurs in four-fifths of building contracts, that when a building is commenced, the client, or other interested person, will alter some portion, thereby causing deviations from the bills of quantities. By having the prices of the different materials before him, it is easy for the quantity surveyor to remeasure the portion altered, adding or deducting as the case may be, and thus to ascertain what difference the alteration makes. ”

“ Thus when an arch is built to bear against an upright wall, a buttress or other counterfort is applied in a direction opposed to the pressure of the arch. In like manner the inclined roof of a building spanning from wall to wall tends to thrust out the walls, and hence a tie is applied to hold the opposite sides of the roof together at its base, where alone a tie can be fully efficient, and thus the roof is made to act upon the walls wholly in the direction of gravity ”

“ Factories both in England and France must be planned and erected to meet the separate acts that deal with these buildings. The fire insurance companies lay down certain requirements according to the size of the building, and the special trade for which it is erected, and fix their rate of premium accordingly. Dwelling-houses in London must be erected in accordance with the many building acts which govern the materials to be used, and the methods by which they shall be employed, the thickness of walls, rates of inclination of roofs, means of escape from fire, drainage, space at rear, &c. ”

“ When, therefore, suitable stone of both qualities can be obtained, the harder stone can be exposed to the weather, or to the action which the softer stone cannot resist, and made to form the main body of the structure of the latter so protected. The hard and the soft should be made to bear alike, and should therefore be coursed and bonded together by the mason’s art, whether the work be of stone wrought into blocks and gauged to thickness, or of rough dressed or otherwise unshaped rubble compacted with mortar. ”

“ In America the standard quality for all materials is set out, but in no English acts do we find the definition of the quality of timber, new materials, steel, &c. Iron and steel construction is in its infancy in England as compared with America, and probably this accounts for no special regulations being in force; but part 22 of the New York Building Code, section 110 to 129 inclusive, deals very fully with iron and steel construction, and this is further supplemented by sections 137 to 140 inclusive. ”

“ When concrete is used to obviate the tendency of the soil to yield to pressure, expanse or extent of base is required, and the concrete being widely spread should therefore be deep or thick as a layer, only with reference to its own power of transmitting to the ground the weight of the wall to be built upon it, without breaking across or being crushed. ”

“ In the general and usual practice of developing land at the present day, the owner or freeholder of the land first consults an architect and states his intentions of building, the size of what he requires, what it is to be used for, if for trade how many hands he intends to employ, and the Procedure for an intended building.sub-buildings and departments, &c., that will be wanted. The architect gathers as much information as he can as to his client’s requirements, and from this information prepares his sketches. ”

“ But pressure acting laterally has a necessary tendency to overthrow a wall, and therefore it will be the aim of the constructor to compel, as far as possible, all forces that can act upon an upright wall, to act in the direction of gravity, or else to give it permanent means of resistance in the direction opposite to that in which a disturbing force may act. ”

“ In England, the Public Health Acts and By-laws are carried out by the various borough or district authorities, who appoint inspectors especially to study the health of the public with regard to sanitary arrangements. The inspectors have special powers to deal with all improper or defective food, or with any defects in buildings that may affect its cleanly preparation. ”

“ Stone and brick, the principal materials in general construction, keep their places in combination by means of gravity. They may be merely packed together, but in general they are compacted by means of mortar or cement, so that although the main constituent materials are wholly incompressible, Stone.masses of either, or of both, combined in structures are compressible, until the setting medium has indurated to a like condition of hardness. That kind of stone is best fitted for the purposes of general construction which is least absorbent of moisture, and at the same time free to work. ”

“ The use of many of these convenient and sound forms of building construction for ordinary buildings in London, and in districts of England where the model by-laws are in force, is prohibited because they do not comply with some one or other of the various clauses relating to materials, or to the thickness of a wall. ”

“ Some soils are liable to change in form, expanding and contracting under meteorological influences; such are clays which swell when wetted and shrink when dried. Concrete foundations are commonly interposed upon such soils to protect the building from derangement from this Foundations.cause; or walls of the cheaper material, concrete, instead of the more expensive brick or stone structure, are brought up from a level sufficiently below the ordinary surface of the ground. ”

“ He should be a thoroughly practical man as opposed to the architectural draughtsman. His salary is paid by the client, and is not included in the architect’s remuneration.
American building acts agree in a general manner with those enforced in London. But whereas New York allows the erection of frame or wood structures, while defining a certain portion of the city inside which no new frame or wood structures shall be erected, in London and the large American practice.cities of Great Britain the erection of wood frame buildings as dwellings is prohibited. ”

“ Another important point is that after the architect has obtained the consent of the building authorities, and also the approval of the client, then he may have to fight the adjoining owners with regard to ancient lights, or air space, or party walls. In the city of London these last difficulties often mean the suspension of the work for a long time, and a great loss to the client. ”

“ Good bricks are less absorbent of moisture than any stone of the same degree of hardness, and are better non-conductors of heat than stone. As the basis of a stable structure, brickwork is more to be relied upon than stone in the form of rubble, when the constituents bear the relation to one Bricks.another last above referred to, the setting material being the same in both ”

“ From the specification and drawings usually an approximate estimate of the cost of the proposed building is prepared by the architect, and the most general method adopted is to cube the building by a multiplication of the length, breadth and height of the building, and to multiply the product or cubic contents by a price ranging from fivepence to three shillings per cubic foot. ”

“ In London there are no such laws; the gas companies control a small portion of the work as regards the connexion to meters, while the insurance companies require gas jets to be covered with a wire guard where liable to come in contact with inflammable goods. As to water, the various water companies in England have each their own set of regulations as to the kind of fittings and thickness and quality of pipe to be used, whether for service, wastes or main. ”

“ The most perfect stability is to be obtained, nevertheless, from truly wrought and accurately seated and bonded blocks of stone, mortar being used to no greater extent than may be necessary to exclude wind and water and prevent the disintegrating action of these agents upon even the most durable stone. ”

“ The duties of the builder are very similar to those of the architect, except that he is not expected to be able to plan and design, but to carry out the plans and designs of the architect in the actual work of building. The builder should also know the various acts, and in The builder’s sphere.particular the acts specially relating to the erection of scaffoldings, hoardings, gantries, shoring and pulling down of old buildings. ”

“ An architect, whilst preparing the working drawings from the rough approved sketches, and endeavouring to conform with the Building Act requirements, often finds after consultation with the district surveyor, or the London County Council, or other local authorities, that the plans have to be altered ”

“ The importance of fire-resisting construction is being more fully recognized now by all countries. In France the regulations for factories, shops and workshops relating to “exits” require that all doors should open outwardly when they open on to courts, vestibules, staircases or Fire-resisting construction.interior passages. When they give access to the open air, outward opening is not obligatory unless it has been judged necessary in the interests of safety. ”

“ In addition, in complicated cases such as occur in the city of London, when a building is erected on land which has four or five distinct owners, an architect may have to prepare a large number of complete copies to be deposited with the various parties interested. ”

“ Perfect stability, however, is not to be obtained with materials which are subject to influences beyond the control of man, and all matter is subject to certain influences of that nature. The influences mostly to be contended against are heat and humidity, the former of which produces movement Materials.of some kind or to some extent in all bodies, the latter, in many kinds of matter; whilst the two acting together contribute to the disintegration or decay of materials available for the purposes of construction. ”

“ If an upright wall be properly constructed upon a sufficient foundation, the combined mass will retain its position General principles.and bear pressure acting in the direction of gravity to any extent that the ground on which it stands, and the compound materials of the wall, can sustain. ”

“ With regard to factories, places for the storage or making of different patent foods, and for slaughter of beasts intended for human consumption, stringent by-laws are in most countries laid down and enforced by the public health authorities. ”

“ In addition to meeting the requirements of the clients, the various buildings have to be constructed and planned on clearly defined lines, according to the rules of the various authorities that control their erection; thus the construction and planning of public schools are Reasons for special type of plans.governed in England by the board of education, and churches are governed by the various societies that assist in financing the erection of these edifices; of these the Incorporated Church Building Society exercises the strongest control. ”

“ Minimum cost with true economy; in the case of office buildings, also ease of rearrangement Conditions necessary for a successful building.to suit tenants. An architect should also be practically acquainted with all the modes of operation in all the trades or arts employed in building, and be able minutely to estimate beforehand the absolute cost involved in the execution of a proposed structure. ”