fasadcoder.blogg.se - Medieval city buildings per person

The awesome power of running water was something that medieval engineers learned to respect and fear, as well as leverage for their own uses. Water mills and medieval industryĭiverting a river was quite a task, but in some cases it was of paramount importance.

Many of the remaining infrastructure came back into use, and inspired the architects of the Renaissance, during the 1400s and 1500s. Sadly, in many cases, the Roman infrastructure was seen as a great resource for building materials and old buildings were dismantled to create new ones. There are also written records of Norman nobles re-using Roman baths as houses or palaces, or as part of their estate. A great example of this is the re-use of some of the biggest Roman aqueducts, which changed the strategic face value of a location and allowed settlements to exist in places where there was no other sufficient access to fresh water. However, as bigger settlements began to rise in both central Europe and the British Isles, this abandoned infrastructure was sometimes reused and repaired. With the gradual fall of the Roman empire (Western Roman Empire 400-500 AD) a large amount of the remaining Roman infrastructure fell into disuse and disrepair. On the Art of Building (1452), Leon Battista Alberti Roman aqueducts and other remnants of infrastructure “Since a city requires a large amount of water not only for drinking, but also for washing, for gardens, tanners and fullers, and drains, and - this is very important - in case of sudden outbreak of fire, the best should be reserved for drinking, and the remainder distributed according to need.”

5 BC – 400 AD, Roman Empire: Empire-wide water works covering the whole range of supply and disposal of water, using a variety of means including lead pipes and, of course, the mighty Roman Aqueducts.

300 BC Alexandria, Egypt: Pressurised piping for fire fighting.

600 BC Rome, Italy: The Cloaca Maxima, a large-scale urban sewage and waste water system.

1800 BC Knossos, Greece: Water management, heated water system, storm sewage.

2350 BC Indus Valley, Pakistan: Private and public baths, sewage systems, drains, reservoirs – a pretty sophisticated water management system.

3000 BC Skara Brae, Scotland: The first signs of fresh and waste water systems indoors.

6350 BC Jezreel Valley, Jordan: The first known water well is dug.

A really short history of pre-medieval water works and infrastructure The medieval water works are certainly not the golden age of water infrastructure, but accomplishments in medieval water technology should not be dismissed. That’s when we start to see the development of Aqueducts (to bring the water from far away sources) and wells (to bring it to the surface from underground springs or streams), as well as solutions to carry it into our houses, and out again once used. At moments when water is not widely available, or the original source of water can no longer sustain the growth in population, human ingenuity comes into play. When looking at historical geopolitical maps we can draw a clear correlation between i) the presence of fresh water and ii) the chance of a community or people appearing near by. Without it nothing can live, grow, or stay healthy. Water is one of the most important resources for any civilisation.