Codes

No, I'm not talking about secret messages or systems of morality (though those are worthy topics (I already did some on Morality)).  Today I'm sitting in a cafe, looking out of the window, and thinking about building codes.  To clarify: there are many highly detailed rules (laws) governing the construction and renovation of buildings.
    Building codes are essentially designed for the safety of occupants and the community that may interact with the building feature.  These codes regulate lots of things we don't spend much time thinking about, like the height of railings or the thickness of the beams in the ceiling.  Fire codes may require multiple modes of egress from any room (which makes being in the labyrinthine basement bars of Prague kind of freaky).  Some early cities outlawed the use of wooden roofs, due to the potential to spread fires rapidly from building to building.  However, most of these rules only came about as a result of catastrophic events.
    While they may have started writing these rules a long time ago, builders and homeowners have been circumventing them for just as long.  This is especially true with regard to things inside the house or within the walls that will be hidden from view.  Knotty or warped wood might be used in construction, or a weak batch of concrete poured for a foundation.  Ceilings without enough support might bow.  Walls without enough support may crumble.
    In many cases, early construction errors are simply a case of getting the physics wrong, or not knowing the long term effects of stress on materials.  There were plenty of folks out there building homes who were not trained in the art.  even those that were might have a tough time of it.  Some grand cathedrals were simply built too tall and ten or fifty years later, bits fall off.  When you see those metal stars on the sides of old brick buildings, they're to keep the walls from collapsing outward.  Engineers today tend to over design, (allowing for unexpected stresses and providing a margin for error).  In the past it was much more difficult to be sure of the materials you were working with and that they were being utilized properly.  Imagine designing and constructing a cathedral without a computer or even a copy machine.  Wonky lines and on-the-fly fixes were almost inevitable.
    Older buildings are often exempted from new rules due to a "grandfather clause" (I guess that means they're too old to change, though it seems rather terrible to think of grandfathers that way).  Grandfather clauses seem to mean that as long as you don't go changing things and nothing goes especially wrong, that you can just leave it alone.  This tends to leave some eyebrow raising features in old homes (like old wiring or dangerous staircases).  These clauses seem to exist so that new laws aren't too onerous for the entire population simultaneously.
    So you're asking yourself why I'm writing about building codes, right?  First of all, looking at old building codes can give us an idea what old buildings looked like.  If something was outlawed, that must mean that someone was doing it.  Secondly, shoddy workmanship is not something new.  We often think of it as what gives a house "character" (like sloping floors).  Finally, these differences between historical construction requirements and modern ones can make our worlds come alive.  Thin walls make rooms cold, as does poor glazing on the windows.  Wood rots.  Floorboards creak.  There is probably only one way out of the basement.  Your buildings can be atmosphere as well as a vehicle for the plot.  Now, go out there and design some buildings poorly!