[modo_mario]

The same is said for why we don't build classical buildings anymore and trend towards more featureless stuff... and it's also mostly bullshit with plenty of counterexamples.

Truth is it's often just a bit cheaper so we trend that way under capitalism, we change styles faster and have come to subconsciously accept shorter lifespans and the kind of things you can build more practical for cars, large overhangs, etc

[anal_reactor]

But it's also true that modern world changes much faster than in the antiquity. If you built a church, a market, and a few utility buildings like tavern and blacksmith in 500BC you could rest assured they'd still remain used in 1000 years practically unchanged unless the structure or wider economy collapsed. Meanwhile "office building, shopping mall, nightclub, school" all varied highly in popularity within last 50 years, and it's difficult to convert one type of building to another, not to mention the costs of modernizing an old building.

[AngryData]

Well also building cheaper makes converting such structures to other uses more costly too. You can't simply start notching steel and adding more features and beams without a complicated engineering review because those beam were so carefully designed as to just barely hold up under their original plan.

You can't simply add a second story to a mall or walmart or modern school, none of its main structural pillars or beams could hold it. But with an overbuilt structure from 500+ years ago you likely could add another floor or two with minimal improvements to the base structure.