Members can add to the Designing Buildings Wiki (DBW) – host platform for the IHBC’s Conservation Wiki and the ‘construction industry knowledge base’ –list of construction industry traditions, superstitions, pseudoscience and obsolete scientific theories that members are encouraged to review, supplement and critique!
… Some of the concepts have been superseded by modern research. Others have been discredited…
DBW writes:
Designing Buildings Wiki (DBW) article presents a list of construction industry traditions, superstitions, pseudoscience and obsolete scientific theories. Some of the concepts have been superseded by modern research. Others have been discredited based on further investigation, lack of repeatable scientific evidence or inability to provide logical proof. Despite this, some of these methods continue to be used by practitioners who believe in their effectiveness or embrace their theories.
- Broken ceramic statues (in Ancient Rome).
- Calling of an engineer ritual.
- Coins in mortar (dated the year construction began).
- Concealed shoes.
- Cornerstone rites.
- Crop circles.
- Dowsing.
- Feng shui.
- Foundation sacrifices (or ritual offerings).
- Ley lines.
- Mandala.
- Miasma theory.
- Religious building orientation.
- Rule of thumb.
- Pannenbier
- Tetraphobia
- Topping off or topping out.
- Triskaidekaphobia.
- Vastu Shastra.
- Walking under ladders.
- Witchmarks in timber (or witch posts).
See more IHBC and IHBC’s HESPR on IHBC’s Conservation Wiki
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