Services, mechanical and environmental systems

Abstract

The development of services in buildings has a lengthy and complex history. It is possible, however, to introduce some order into the subject by drawing a series of dividing lines to define relatively distinct historical periods. The first of these lines can be drawn at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Much of what is nowadays referred to as building services depends upon the availability of sources of mechanical energy. Just as the Industrial Revolution itself depended upon the invention of the steam engine, so the use of steam power, and slightly later coal gas, made possible fundamental developments in the way in which buildings were conceived and used.