Atlantis EdTech Academy

Most modern products are optimised for cost, speed, scale, throw-replace/upgrade cycles. We are living in a world where certain resources are limited. On one side, consumers are looking for healthier, more sustainable and durable products. On the other side, companies are pressured to create quicker and cheaper, fascinating contents and products.

But how did our ancestors build their products and systems? Many historical techniques and artifacts were built under different constraints: long lifetimes,
limited external support, and the expectation of local repair and adaptation over time.

In this article we look into the past as a source of inspiration that can be used when thinking or designing new products. We will look into principles to products from ancient times with examples of such concepts and their possible applications nowadays.

1. Self-Healing Behaviour

Principle: Use materials, structures or systems that can partially or fully stabilise damage over time. Damage should not always propagate immediately into system failure.

Example:
Roman concrete structures showed long-term durability partly due to chemical processes that can reduce crack propagation in certain conditions. Roman builders mixed lime clasts into their concrete, which chemically reacted with water to seal internal cracks as they formed.
Sticky rice mortar (used in the Ming Dynasty) incorporates amylopectin, a starch that chemically reacts with lime to create a dense, interlocking crystal network. If cracks occur, the material’s internal chemistry can help seal them, preventing the structural degradation seen in modern, rigid cements.

Inspiration: How can we use self-healing chemistry or automated software patches to prevent a small bug or scratch from ruining our current products?

2. Partial Functionality Upon Failures

Principle: Some systems can continue operating in a reduced capacity after localised damage. Failure should reduce performance gradually, not eliminate usefulness instantly.

Example: woven ropes and nets: individual strand breakage reduces strength but does not immediately stop function. Woven nets distribute tension across many pathways, so a single broken strand forces neighbors to share the load rather than failing entirely. This geometry allows the system to degrade gracefully, providing clear warnings that you must perform maintenance before the structure breaks.

Inspiration: How can we design modern electronics or applications to run on a “safe mode” when a component breaks, instead of completely crashing?

3. Reversibility and Material Reuse

Principle: components can be dismantled and reused in different structures over time. Parts should not be permanently locked into a single lifecycle.

Example: traditional Japanese Kigumi joinery uses intricate, interlocking wood-to-wood connections without a single nail or screw. This allows builders to disassemble, transport, and reassemble entire structures in new locations while keeping individual timber members intact.

Inspiration: What would our gadgets look like if they were held together by smart interlocking joints instead of permanent glue and proprietary screws?

4. Human-Comprehensible System Design

Principle: systems remain understandable and maintainable by a small group or single skilled operator. A system should not exceed human cognitive manageability at its critical layers.

Example: trained local craftsmen could often fully understand and repair mechanical devices like water mills and early clocks. Visible, macro-scale components like gears, levers, and waterwheels let users grasp operational logic through direct observation instead of hidden software. Local blacksmiths and millwrights forged replacement parts with standard regional tools, so the technology remained maintainable without a dependent supply chain.

Inspiration: How can we strip away the unnecessary digital complexity in our software and hardware so an everyday user can actually understand how to fix it?

5. Multi-Generational Maintenance Assumption

Principle: systems are designed with the expectation that future, different people will maintain them. The original creator is not the long-term maintainer.

Example: different communities continuously maintained medieval infrastructure, including roads, irrigation systems, and buildings, across generations. Medieval societies tied infrastructure maintenance to religious duty and land obligations, forcing communities to pass down knowledge collectively. This turned critical infrastructure into a self-perpetuating commons vital to community survival.

Inspiration: How can we build digital tools and platforms today that run and remain manageable for decades without relying on our specific team? As populations age and systems become more complex, our need for skilled repair specialists grows critical. We must train experts to maintain our ageing infrastructure before vital knowledge disappears. We should also design simpler, more repairable systems.

Conclusion

Historical constraints shaped older systems, while modern systems hide these realities. These constraints included limited repair infrastructure, slower replacement cycles, and longer assumed lifetimes. By looking at the past, we can draw inspiration from these timeless principles to design products that truly stand the test of time and delight our users.

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References:

Seymour, L. M., et al. (2023). Hot mixing: Mechanistic insights into the durability of ancient Roman concrete. Science Advances, 9.

Jiang, L., et al. (2026). Functional Adaptability and Durability Performance of Chinese Traditional Concrete Across Multiple Structural Layers in Chongwu Ancient City Wall, Quanzhou, China. Buildings, 16(10), 1954.

Pospisil, N. (2026). Beyond The First Structure – A conceptual Framework for Timber Reuse Strategies based on Japanese Carpentry [Diploma Thesis, TU Wien].