The lack of power tools may have exactly been why the building is as sturdy as it is. It took the builders several years to build the whole building. Most of the concrete they used hardened out before they built on the next section.
If they would have had powertools, construction would have progressed a lot faster, the concrete would not have hardened as well as it should and the building would have cracked and collapsed a lot more easily.
Plenty of shoddily constructed buildings were also made without power tools.
There might be an element of truth to your argument, but I suspect the more important factor is the influence of the party motivating the construction.
A Roman businessman building a hi-rise tenement building would probably not bother enforcing the use of quality engineering and materials. They also didn't use power tools, but if I'm not mistaken, these hi-rise apartment blocks were known to collapse.
But if you're building something like the Pantheon, in Rome, for the emperor Hadrian, you're going to have access to the best materials, and are not going to want to risk your neck by slacking.
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The lack of power tools may have exactly been why the building is as sturdy as it is. It took the builders several years to build the whole building. Most of the concrete they used hardened out before they built on the next section.
If they would have had powertools, construction would have progressed a lot faster, the concrete would not have hardened as well as it should and the building would have cracked and collapsed a lot more easily.
Plenty of shoddily constructed buildings were also made without power tools.
There might be an element of truth to your argument, but I suspect the more important factor is the influence of the party motivating the construction.
A Roman businessman building a hi-rise tenement building would probably not bother enforcing the use of quality engineering and materials. They also didn't use power tools, but if I'm not mistaken, these hi-rise apartment blocks were known to collapse.
But if you're building something like the Pantheon, in Rome, for the emperor Hadrian, you're going to have access to the best materials, and are not going to want to risk your neck by slacking.