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redwall_hpyesterday at 8:46 AM1 replyview on HN

> If you have another architectural style for western civilization which bases its institutions on Greece and Rome, I’d be interested in learning more about it.

Carolingian architecture didn't just cargo cult, they literally pilfered Roman columns and integrated them into anachronistic designs. If I recall my art history class correctly, the columns from Charlemagne's Palatine Chapel were "repurposed" (looted) from a Roman temple. [1]

This is also an example of architectural skeuomorphism: designing something in a way reminiscent of an older thing, to borrow the associations people have with it. In this case, Roman authority.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatine_Chapel,_Aachen#/media...


Replies

ericmayyesterday at 4:36 PM

Yea great example and really cool building. Too bad we don’t build nice things anymore. It’s a shame our oligarch class is so uncultured and stupid.