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Reyner Banham's The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment [1] argues that it's three factors: - Elevator (making high-rises socially possible) - Air c
by brenschluss 8y ago
Reyner Banham's The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment [1] argues that it's three factors:
- Elevator (making high-rises socially possible)
- Air conditioning
- Electric lighting (making windows less necessary to fill interior space with workplaces, and much safer than ceiling gas lights)
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Well-Tempered-Environment-Reyner-Banham/dp/0226036987 https://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Well-Tempered-Environmen...
- dredmorbius 8y agoWater and sewage both sustaining that height don't hurt either.
- brenschluss 8y agoYes, but that technology existed before the 1900s. Banham has a great graph that illustrates the sudden mass adoption of lightbulbs/refrigerators/air conditioning within the span of 10-20 years from 1910-1930.
- dredmorbius 8y agoWater-at-height is a bit of a different creature. Steel suitable for pipes, and long-distance water pipes, really did not exist before the 1860s, and mostly arose for and from the Pennsylvania oil industry. The earlier options were generally ceramic pipe (OK for horizontal flows, but prone to breakage), and open acqueducts (dating to Roman times), with wood or bamboo used for some shorter runs (tens to 100s of meters generally). I don't know much about skyscraper plumbing at all, though I doubt it's just scaled-up 1-4 storey kit. And by 1931, the Empire State Building was 102 storeys tall (443m). For more on multi-storey plumbing considerations: http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/hygiene/plumbing14.pdf http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/hygiene/plumbing1...