skunkachunks t1_je4c1gd wrote
I don’t know if you’re American, but think about buildings like:
-Michigan Central Station, Detroit (abandoned for decades, with some revitalization in progress)
-Any abandoned mall (abandoned, future tbd)
-Astrodome, Houston (abandoned, future tbd)
and ask how they fell into a state of abandonment and disrepair despite the governments of the United States and every state and local government that have jurisdiction over these respective structures staying intact. These buildings became old, expensive to maintain/renovate, and outlived their economic usefulness.
Same thing with these older buildings. Why pay to keep up an old stadium or temple that nobody uses anyway?
Additionally, it’s important to note that the nation that built the Colosseum is not the same nation that is called Italy today. Rome fell around 476 AD along with a lot of the wealth and infrastructure to support something like the Colosseum. Italy wasn’t reunited as a single nation until 1861. Rome didn’t surpass its ancient population until after WWII.
Gullible-Annual-6085 t1_je6m6nj wrote
To add, they were just designed poorly. These buildings were put up without an air barrier in the insulation envelope. This causes a temperature delta between the two substrates with the two air pressure systems interacting with very little force interruption. As a result it would produce the equivalent of 2 liters of moisture per square foot in a building in a month.
That’s a fuck ton of moisture.
All commercial buildings going up now have air barriers to prevent the ungodly amount of moisture that was the biggest problem with the earlier builds.
EsmuPliks t1_je6upes wrote
>To add, they were just designed poorly. These buildings were put up without an air barrier in the insulation envelope.
Meh, we also know now Romans used to mix lumps of calcium into their concrete to make cracks self repair, the "moisture" is by far not the issue. There are plenty of examples across Europe of 400 AD architecture still in good condition, the destroyed ones are usually either explicitly bombed to fuck in one of the hundreds of wars, or just uncared for and destroyed by accelerated erosion as modern infrastructure is built around them. And the occasional earthquake too, when talking about Italy and Greece.
Gullible-Annual-6085 t1_je6vw6c wrote
I disagree. And sure that architecture is still in good condition but that was before the invention of HVAC and the temperature delta between the pressure systems is now much higher than it was during those periods. Besides stone and concrete is mostly an air barrier and is a much better air barrier than the typical buildings put up in 40’s-00’s with just substrate and fiberglass. Masonry buildings put up during this time are also in good shape.
We’re talking about the majority of malls/commercial buildings that have been left to rot.
I think it’s like 80 percent of commercial buildings have mold problems and water damage that were built during this period. I’d reckon the 20 percent are the masonry buildings.
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