Siegfried Giedion's book about the effects of the Industrial
             Revolution upon humanity's personal and social space, and the discipline of
             architecture as a whole, is entitled Mechanization Takes Command. In his
             title, Giedion suggests that human beings' intimate surroundings were
             completely permeated and transmuted by the forces of mechanization, as
             generated by the mass industrialization of production and society.
             Ironically, the forces of humanity created the machine. The machine
             was supposed to make human life easier. But instead, human life and human
             speed has become subordinate to the pace and confining discipline of the
             machine-based modalities of production. In fact, Gideon believes that
             because mechanization sprang entirely from the mind of man, it is more
             dangerous and less easily controlled than natural forces since it reacts on
             the senses and the mind of its creator in a way that natural forces do not.
             The equilibrium of the human body, which requires a certain state of
             nature to function at its best is instead subjected to machinesâ€"for
             instance, workers must put on extra clothes to keep warm in offices that
             are kept cool for the computer machinery present. Or, they are subjected
             to the heat of the assembly line, working in the dark to produce far more
             goods then they need in huge factories.
             Spaces to produce grow larger and less decorated, as machines need
             more room and cannot take delight in art. Spaces that human beings occupy
             grow smaller as they are piled into apartments, to live in small and
             enclosed cities, to serve machines, and human beings are denied the time
             and leisure to produce works of beauty that are individual, to add delight
             to their increasingly small surroundings. Even amenities, such as ornate
             dressings' to rooms and clothing are now purchased from mass-producing
             factories, rather than made by the individ...