We can overwhelm ourselves if we consider the volume of human labor invested in the built environment. Every brick ever made is handled at least four times by four different people-once when it is made, once when it is transported, once when it is delivered to the mason, and once by the mason. And that's the most efficient scenario.
Architecture has resisted a great portion of the manufacturing efficiency that came out of the Industrial Revolution. Building materials benefit from improved production techniques, but ultimately, a human picks up a piece of the structure, and then another human moves it, and finally it gets to be part of a building--but only for a little while. Architecture here in the United States seems to last around fifty years. But longevity is no mark of success. There is less incentive to preserve things in prosperous regions because there is the money available to start fresh. Preservation can be at odds with progress, and if there is the will and the financing the bricks are torn down, often by machinery, sometimes by hand, and frequently never used again. As far as I know the stuff in this picture is still standing.
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