What If Our Buildings Could Self-Heal? The Romans Had the Answer

What If Our Buildings Could Self-Heal? The Romans Had the Answer

The Pantheon’s 43-meter unreinforced concrete dome endures because Roman builders used hot-mixed quicklime with volcanic ash, creating self-healing lime clasts. Credit: Mr Gs Travels, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 While our modern concrete roads and tower blocks often begin deteriorating after only a few decades, Roman buildings have managed to survive for over two millennia. Given this conundrum, one may wonder how that’s even possible. Structures li…