1.5.3 TECHNOLOGY
The relationship between architecture and technology was not stable even in ancient
Greece. In ancient Greece, architecture was understood as a marriage of thought and
action, represented by the Greek concept techné, technology in the sense of ‘the art of
making’.^252 In ancient Greece the concept of techné, as generally understood, covered not
only manual work but also fields requiring knowledge and skill, such as building, sculpture,
acting and rhetoric. Plato defined knowledge, episteme, as a true belief that has a basis or
an explanation. The knowledge of a craftsman was also such knowledge. Aristotle, on
the other hand, distinguished between theoretical knowledge, practical knowledge and
productive crafts. He defined craft as “a state of rational ability to create”, which in an
interesting way highlights the knowledge that lies at the basis of techné. As a heritage of
antiquity, knowledge and craft, or skill, were kept strictly apart.^253 The Greek word tekton,
in turn, referred to a carpenter or builder. The concept expanded in the fifth century BC,
and it was considered to encompass the dimension of poïesis, or creativity. This concept led
to the emergence of the concepts of master builder and architecton.^254
The relationship between architecture and technology changed in the wake of
industrialisation so that art and construction became separate. The German architect
and scholar Gottfried Semper (1803–1879) suggested in his 1851 work, The Four Ele-
ments of Architecture, that a primitive dwelling could be divided into four basic elements:
the heart, the earthwork, the roof and the enclosure.^255 According to the Australian
Professor Gevork Hartoonian, who studied the ontology of structure, Gottfried Semper
radicalised the question on the origin of architecture and overhauled the anthropo-
centric discourse by arguing that architecture was based on four crafts. According to
Hartoonian, Semper’s discourse undermined the metaphysical content of techné and
the tectonic while emphasising the automatisation of values and experience.^256
Albeit the etymology of “technology” is passed down to us from antiquity, the con-
cept needs to be discussed in connection to industrialisation and science. Industrialisa-
tion started in the mid-18th century and proceeded rapidly during the next century. The
context of this study is modern technology, which differs from the technology of the
previous times in its relation to scientific knowledge. Beginning in the late 19th century,
people developing technological systems started to apply scientific knowledge to them.
However, the modern technological systems are not about scientific knowledge alone.
Historian Thomas Hughes from the United States has defined technological systems as
such that use whatever means available and appropriate to solve problems or fulfil goals.
252 “Techné” is the Greek word for technology; it means “the art of making”. Hartoonian 1997, pp. 1–2.
253 Niiniluoto 2000, p. 17.
254 Frampton 1996, pp. 3–4.
255 On the basis of this taxonomy Semper classifies the building crafts into the tectonics of the frame, in which linear
lightweight components are assembled so as to encompass a spatial matrix, and the streotomics of the earth-
work, wherein mass and volume are conjointly formed through the repetitious piling up of heavyweight elements.
Frampton 1996, p. 5.
256 Hartoonian 1997, p. 1.