Предтекстовые упражнения

1. Подберите к данным английским словам русские слова с тем же корнем; используйте их, чтобы понять текст при чтении его.

effect, element, physical, materials, escalator, hall, cor­ridor, interior, activity, alphabet, musician, practically, aesthetically, real, detail, isolated, factor, emotional, prob­lem, fantasy, sculpture, poems, music, clinics, political, economic.

2. Вспомните значения следующих английских слов и под­берите соответствующий перевод из правого столбца.

to design 1. понимать

coexistence 2. создавать

to shelter 3. искусство

value 4. выражение

true 5. истинный

separate 6. укрывать

to integrate 7. сооружение

to create 8. проектировать

beauty 9. сосуществование

essential 10. ценность

consideration 11. так же, как, а также

appearance 12. раздельный

to realize 13. прочность

expression 14. внешний вид

convenience 15. рассмотрение, учет

to construct 16. строить

as well as 17. единое (целое)

art 18 красота

structure 19. существенный, важный

strength 20. удобство

the whole 21. объединять в единое целое

activities 22. деятельность

T e x t. Forms and Functions of Architecture

(Continued)

(1) The value of true architecture lies in the direct effect of the structure itself and of the actual elements of which it is constructed. Outside we observe the physical structure;

we see variations of plane, of color, and of light and shade. Each one of these variations is due to the effects of light on the building materials employed. There are doors to allow ingress and egress; windows to admit light and air; walls for shelter or support, or both; roofs to keep out the rain, snow, cold, and sometimes sun.

(2) We enter the building, and the same complexity of elements meets our attention. Partitions separate space from space; there may be stairs, escalators, or elevators to allow progress from level to level and halls or corridors to permit easy circulation from part to part; finally there may be all sorts of interior spaces for definite human activities—rooms both public and private—to take care of the varying func­tions of human living.

(3) Such elements—walls and openings, supports, floors and ceilings, enclosed areas or rooms—are the letters of the architect's alphabet, it is with these that he must project an integration of the whole in order to create a work of archi­tecture. A knowledge of this alphabet is as essential to him as a knowledge of words to the writer or of notes to the mu­sician. No building can exist without some of them, and upon their correct arrangement and design the success of the building, both practically and aesthetically, will almost entirely be founded.

(4) Yet a separate consideration of individual elements is in a very real sense artificial. The architect must always study each detail from the viewpoints of both use and ap­pearance as well as from that of construction, and he must continuously see it not as an isolated detail but as an indi­vidual note in a great composition.

(5) The sequence of the three basic aims—"convenience, strength and beauty"—has its own significance. First any building exists for some particular purpose, it is built be­cause of some definite human need, either practical or emo­tional, or both. The use problem—"convenience"—is there­fore primary.

(6) Next, the construction of any object or shelter for human use must be a true construction; that is, it must stand up solidly for the duration for which it is designed. Any true architectural design is no mere fantasy, no unreal dream, but contemplates an actual building, and for a building to exist there must be adequate structure. Hence "strength" becomes the second necessity, as important as the first yet in a way subsidiary to it.

(7) Finally, mankind has always realized that buildings to be complete must have not only "convenience" and "strength" but also "beauty". There are some who claim that architecture is not a fine art at all and that its single purpose should be the satisfying of physical necessities. For such people, the world of fine arts is something entirely set apart from ordinary living, it is a matter of pictures or sculpture, of poems or music, seen and appreciated as things in themselves.

(8) The architect has the task of being an artist as well as an inventive engineer. The expression of the purpose of buildings would seem to call for additional thought on this point. The emotions evoked by theaters, churches, clinics, and dwellings will always differ from one another, whatever the economic or political framework of the civilization that produces them.