this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2024
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interestingasfuck
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This is being built in the town of Wemding which celebrated its 1,200 year anniversary in 1993. The idea was to build something that would take 1,200 years to complete in order to emphasize how long the town has been in existence. People saying its stupid or going to be abandoned are forgetting the town itself has existed for longer.
While the town is that old I promise you that almost nothing looks like it was 1200 years ago. Maybe they can hold on that tradition 100 years but at some point the people won't bother. Need more space or don't see the point of it anymore
How about that concrete doesn't last that long?
Regardless, it just a pr piece for the town, so whatever.
*well not the concrete they're likely using, anyhow.
There are still Roman buildings made of concrete standing....
Roman concrete is very different from modern concrete. It was made with a few different ingredients that made salt water strengthen it, as opposed to weaken it, and lime class (among other things) helped it "self heal" cracks.
Roman concrete is why I put the * comment, but no one uses it anymore. Between it being a lost recipe for a while and it taking longer to "set" no one throwing up buildings or laying out roads cares that something lasts over 100 years anymore.
Doubt they will use the same concrete recipe used in highways.
They most likely already thought about and solved that particular problem.
We know the recipe for Roman concrete, and we have better concrete recipes. This absolutely can last longer than Roman concrete.
It's self healing because of the poorer mixing, undissolved quicklime (calcium oxide) would remain in the concrete, and water getting in cracks would dissolve it and produce calcium hydroxide, which then combines with carbon dioxide to form more limestone aggregate (calcium carbonate) to heal the cracks.
There's a survivor bias when it comes to really old buildings of course so it's likely we're only seeing a small portion of the surviving buildings from that era.
We could make concrete that lasts multiple times the amount of time as Roman concrete, but we usually don't because it's more expensive (and modern construction seems to be about minimizing costs as much as possible and not worrying about anything more than a few decades out)
You're not wrong, but Romans had much better concrete.
One is a town and the other thing is random concrete blocks. Yeah, they are equally useful
That's a nice thought but will the town actually still exist if the population doesn't? Humans have maybe 120 years left, there's zero chance of humans finishing this pyramid.
Although if a weird little art installation in a small German town is what gets capitalism to end, I'm all for it.
Not stupid, but I am curious if the type of concrete being used will last 1200 years.