In the first of a three-part series on technology and building, Brent Hull traces how industrialization reshapes craftsmanship. Steam power and machine production put mass-made moldings, millwork, and flooring within easy reach, and the carpenter's role narrows from master builder and designer to assembler and installer. Technology also changes architecture itself, shifting construction from timber framing and mortise-and-tenon joinery toward balloon framing, and enabling the dense ornamentation of the Victorian era that the Arts and Crafts movement later reacts against. The position here is balance rather than resistance: hand tools and traditional joinery still earn their place alongside modern equipment like CNC machines.

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