Technological evolution of architecture

This work is an evolutionary analogy about the history of architecture. The sources of research are derived from sketches, published theses, critical articles, and architectural structures that survive from each period. Evidence of evolutionary analogies explaining the diversity of material cultures and providing the background to the theoretical sub-structure of this work has been traced in the literature reviews. In the light of information borrowed from previous works, an evolutionary analogy has been proposed, addressing the processes of adaptation to the changing environment and its relations, based on the cause-effect relationship between architecture and biology. The most visible part of the change in architecture is "technology". Technological advancement has enabled the development of engineering knowledge and construction techniques, in this way; building forms, composition rules, materials, methods of use of structures, composition of typical elements, details, decoration, etc. many architectural elements have undergone changes. Successful results that meet sociological and physical needs have been developed and passed on to the future, while those that fail have been eliminated or destroyed over time. From primitive shelters that provide the need for housing to this end, everything that has been tried, produced and developed until the modern skyscrapers of the 21st century has been added to the enormous diversity of architectural cultures. This major change in architecture and the resulting diversity have complex interrelationships of environmental and social dynamics. "Evolutionary approaches" that describe change around a causal mechanism have the potential to explain this change in architectural culture. The way in which evolutionary approaches in cultural fields have evolved from the origins of biology to the day-to-day behavior of all adaptive systems have been one of our most powerful tools in seeking the laws underlying change processes. The explanatory and comparative approach of evolutionary theory has been an inspiration to elucidate the complex relationships of systems in different fields. The "natural selection" mechanism, which Darwin pointed out, is an often used method in evolutionary analogies for systems outside of biology, which indicates that an organic structure that adapts to its environment will have more chances to survive. But the lack of a general theory of change, which explains the development of architecture in a comparative and systematic way, has often led architects and historians to skip the "cause-and-effect" relationship when revealing detailed chronologies of events and structures. Given the complex interplay between social, cultural, geographical, technological, economic and innumerable individual intentions that affect architectural culture in any given period, presenting a chronological list of changes that architecture has experienced does not provide a sufficient explanation. Steadman underlined this in the preface to the book "The Evolution of Design", and mentioned that a more comprehensive study of architectural culture change is needed. At the same time, mistakes are often made in the use of concepts such as change and evolution. These misuse are often seen in the use of the term "evolving" to describe the development and progress of architectural cultures. These definitions of evolution away from the scientific context can bring with it a conceptual confusion in revealing the possible evolution of architecture. When we look at evolutionary studies in the field of architecture in the literature, in the early 20th century, architects like Fletcher, Geddes and Jencks have been used to analyze the historical development of architectural cultures. But nowadays, it is noteworthy that the number of historical evolutionary analogies that architects have used to analyze the historical development of architectural cultures has gradually decreased. Therefore, this study of "technological evolution of architecture" aims to fill the theoretical gap left by the recently decreasing historical evolutionary analysts and to develop an alternative, contemporary scientific method for explaining architectural cultural change through the principles of organic evolution. In the first chapter, the problem area of the study is defined and the thought which causes the study to be done is tried to be conveyed to the reader in a short and concise manner. The aim, method and scope of the work are expressed in this section. In the second part, the concepts of "change" and "evolution" which constitute the conceptual background of the study are dealt with in detail so that the analogical approach to the technological evolution of architecture can be read correctly. In the literature reviews made, it was noticed that the definition of "evolving" to describe the development of architectural cultures-progression-was often used superficially away from the scientific context. For this reason, the theoretical development that has lived up to the use of the concepts of "change" and "evolution" in the field of architecture has been mentioned in detail. Also in this section, the development of concepts of change and evolution has been conveyed in chronological order until the emergence of theories of "cultural" and "organic" evolution, in order to descend into the background of the idea of evolution and present the scientific context of the reader. In the literature survey, it was observed that ideas about the change or evolution of architecture began to spread after the 19th century. Thus, in the second chapter, the thoughts on the evolution of architectural cul- tures have been examined at the end of the 19th century and earlier, along with the progressive cultural evolution ideas. The theoretical background of the evolutionary analogies that constitute the subject of the third chapter has been revealed. In the third chapter, the evolutionary analogies that began to become widespread in the cultural sphere after the 19th century were inspired to build the technological progress of architecture on the basis of an evolutionary analogy. The architectural evolution analogies and the technological evolutionary analogies made in cultural areas were evaluated together, and some architectural works that considered the development of technology and architecture from different angles unique within the period were analyzed. As a result of the analysis, the principles of organic evolution, which will form the original aspect and theoretical framework of the evolutionary analogue proposed in the fourth chapter, have been determined. In the fourth chapter, analogical methods, which are valuable in the light of the data obtained from the analyzes, have been synthesized and four basic organic evolutionary principles have been defined for the scientific framework of the evolutionary analogue: "requirement", "adaptation", "selection" and "diversity". The technological development of architecture with these four basic evolutionary filters; "structure-material", "construction-vehicle technology" and "technological-scientific innovations" have examined. Unique architectural structures, each with significant technological innovation in their period, have been selected, predominantly in the Industrial Revolution, where technological change is felt most intensely. The selected works were evaluated under environmental and sociological dynamics within the periods and an evolutionary reading (mapping) was conducted under the cause-effect relationship, in which a comparative table could be followed. In the conclusion section, this evolutionary reading was evaluated, historical sections were taken from different points, and a simple formula-grammar was tried to be compared by the change, environmental and cultural dynamics of architecture. To try to establish such an analogy approach will bring different perspectives and possibly new starting points to architecture point of view.