The building trade of The Victorian Era, was one of the largest industries in the country employing about 6% of the total labor force, this was due to the fact that more people were looking to "improve" their standards of living.
At first the construction firms were usually small and would erect around two to five houses in a year, but as the need for more housing and building arose firms were becoming bigger. The Victorians acknowledged this change and gradually municipal building regulations were introduced to ensure a standard of health, quality and materials.
This wasn't the only change that took place, there was the popularization of a new form of tendering whereby one firm undertook an entire job: traditionally each craft would be contracted individually.
I think this was a better for the architectural field because now one firm (group of architects) could focus on the building as a whole making it easier to create an atmosphere withing the building, whereas if we are to have multiple firms working on particular areas of the building it would cause lots of confusion within the completed building. Although, one might argue that this brought down the quality of the building in the sense that not as much attention was paid to the minor details due to the lack of time and the introduction of mass production.
But, they seemed to respond well to the new form of tendering: it was being applied to individual houses and Interiors. Firms would not only undertake the building but all the Interior fittings, thus giving rise to the "Decorators" who tackled all aspects of Interior decoration within one contract.
This absolutely changed the design world and is similar to what we have in today's firms, whereby one company will take on the whole building Exterior and Interiors. This also aided the growth of the Interior Design field.
At first the construction firms were usually small and would erect around two to five houses in a year, but as the need for more housing and building arose firms were becoming bigger. The Victorians acknowledged this change and gradually municipal building regulations were introduced to ensure a standard of health, quality and materials.
This wasn't the only change that took place, there was the popularization of a new form of tendering whereby one firm undertook an entire job: traditionally each craft would be contracted individually.
I think this was a better for the architectural field because now one firm (group of architects) could focus on the building as a whole making it easier to create an atmosphere withing the building, whereas if we are to have multiple firms working on particular areas of the building it would cause lots of confusion within the completed building. Although, one might argue that this brought down the quality of the building in the sense that not as much attention was paid to the minor details due to the lack of time and the introduction of mass production.
But, they seemed to respond well to the new form of tendering: it was being applied to individual houses and Interiors. Firms would not only undertake the building but all the Interior fittings, thus giving rise to the "Decorators" who tackled all aspects of Interior decoration within one contract.
This absolutely changed the design world and is similar to what we have in today's firms, whereby one company will take on the whole building Exterior and Interiors. This also aided the growth of the Interior Design field.
The children who built Victorian Britain. Directed by Julian Carey. United Kingdom, BBC Television [Documentary]