prefab and reuse from Greek history

0-impact built environment

prefab and reuse from Greek history

Last week I traveled Sicily , and visited some interesting sites from the Greek & Roman period.

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First of all a quarry, with column elements (unused) for a Greek temple : Amazing how big these elements are, and I realized this could act as a reference for prefab construction, and for 0-fossil fuel production as well , since made only with labor investments…. (not counting labor for Embodied energy…)

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But even more astonished I was when visiting the Duomo in Syracuse: I knew a mosque that became a church , the famous Mesquita in Cordoba, Spain, but here I ‘found’ a much older Greek temple preserved as church ! Somewhere at the end of the Roman period it was reused as a church, by closing the openings between the columns with masonry, and redecorating the church from inside. This way it more or less has become the best preserved Greek temple , since the columns and friezes are not a rebuild construction, as in most historic sites , but still standing! Already 2500 years. Unique! And is a reference for long term reuse of buildings….

see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_di_Cusa

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Athena_%28Syracuse%29

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