Uploaded on 2015-05-28 by DimIoss

[1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14328563072044713.jpg Photo taken from the inside of Bernard Tschumi’s new Acropolis Museum towards the ancient Acropolis in the near outside. Exhibited Parthenon marbles and visitor areas are visible in the internal reflection of the glass façade. These two architectural monuments – ancient Acropolis of Athens and its modern museum – are built with materials and technologies of their time. 1) While the early constructions and the Acropolis foundation were erected using limestone - abundant material in the Attica area - the Parthenon temple was built under Pericles supervision using prestigious marble coming from nearby Mount Pentelicus about 15 km away. Construction material was local while construction techniques were the most advanced of the know world, due to the monumental dimension of the construction. 2) The modern Acropolis Museum built in 2007-2009 by Bernard Tschumi – a Swiss architect recognized from the ‘global economy’ – is using the most modern materials and technologies of our time: reinforced concrete and steel for the structure, advanced glass and transparent coating material for the façade, sophisticated acoustical and thermic coatings for the floors and inner core, etc… all construction materials resulting of a global technology know-how and material sourcing. In this example, construction materials have indeed evolved from local components (marble and limestone from the local area) to materials by the global economy (steel, reinforced concrete and sophisticated glass components if not produced locally, those are the research results of the global construction economy). However since we are talking here about the construction of a major civilizational monument, what is interested to note is that despite the materials used in the past were locally sourced due to obvious logistics constraints, the construction technology and know-how was already the result of the ‘globalized’ economy of the know-world back in the ancient Greek time: Pericles brought in Athens the best builders and most innovative building processes acknowledged in the Greek world.