Big pieces speed homebuilding

Homes today are being built in weeks instead of month with new factory-type big-piece methods. These new methods also produce homes with better insulation, better weatherproofing, better inside and outside surfaces which are easier to care for.

Until recently, homes were built much like they were in grandpa’s day – by cutting and fitting hundreds of pieces together at each house. Now architects and engineers have come to realize that prefabrication offers those considerable savings in time and money during construction. Building elements are manufactured at factories and erection is reduced to on-site assembly of ready-made parts.

Most new buildings are multistory blocks of flats assembled from large panels forming whole-room walls. Many plants for the manufacture of large structural elements are being built.

Naturally, prefabrication is most profitable when used with a great number of repeated units. Therefore, its greatest use is in large multiunit housing projects, hotels, or where similar homes are built in relatively large numbers.

Brick has got a new life. Experimental and mass construction has confirmed that it is more effective to manufacture so-called vibrobrick panels at a plant than to lay brick buildings; the brick serves only as the load-carrying material. Thermal insulation is done with fibre glass and thermal light insulation materials.

The most labor-consuming job is plumbing, sanitation and water supply. Experience has shown that in numerous instances the potential saving in prefab plumbing assemblies and subassemblies is much greater than most other building operations. Now bathrooms are being prefabricated, complete with walls, floor, ceiling, door, bathtub, wash-basin and piping. This makes it possible to speed up housing construction substantially.

The experience of prefabricated bathrooms suggested the idea of prefabricated rooms and flats which could be simply assembled into houses.

The new techniques of Soviet housing construction include the erection of building by jacking up complete storeys as well as new effective thermal and sound insulation materials and plastics.

Another new feature is the design of special flats, not only for the average family but also for small families; these will have community services including cafes, canteens, homeservice kitchens, gymnasiums, auditoriums, parlours, clubrooms, children’s rooms, libraries, public service establishments, medical rooms, etc.

There are designs which provide for service centres to be linked with the dwelling houses by roofed passages.

COMMENTARY

new factory-made big-piece methods - нові методи заводського великопанельного виготовлення

have come to realize - почали розуміти

on-site assembly - зборка на будівельному майданчику

ready-made parts - збірні деталі (вибору)

The sun and problems of life

The utilization of solar energy is an even more important problem than of, atomic energy. It is now generally recognized that one of the most important problems of modern natural science is that of photosynthesis – the ability of plants to absorb solar energy, assimilate the carbon dioxide of the air, create organic matter and release oxygen.

Photosynthesis is not only a source of food and the process that keeps life going on earth; it is also a source of tremendous quantities of energy that man consumes, energy accumulated in combustible minerals and in plants. The green leaf holds the great secret of the transformation of solar energy into chemical energy. However, plants use up only a hundredth part of the solar radiation absorbed, though this portion of radiant energy is most efficiently utilized.

Today, in this era of space flight, the problem of solar energy and life on the earth and other planets is especially important.

Although photosynthesis is the basic process in agriculture, science is only now beginning to penetrate into the mechanism of this remarkable phenomenon. It is only recently that ways have been found for synthesizing chlorophyll.

A long time ago the prominent physicist Academician A. F. Yoffe called for a practical study of the problem of harnessing solar energy. His investigations demonstrated the possibility of efficient transformation of solar energy into electric current by means of semiconductors. And now, semiconductor photoelectric devices, solar batteries, are widely used in artificial satellites and spaceships.

As man learns about solar energy and its transformations, he will put this knowledge to use in the form of solar generations on earth. The solar devices which are now being built are already a wise economic investment.

Speaking about the problems of utilizing solar energy, we should stress the humane aim – raising the level of agriculture, supplying the growing population of the world with food, and the conquest of space for the food of man. Along with these, solutions can be found too many applied problems in solar-energy uses for industry and the home: the building of devices for power, heat, air conditioning, and the distillation of water.

The rays of the sun warm us here on earth, they give us life and they inspire hope that the harnessing of solar energy will mean not only a fresh approach to large and small discoveries, but also a means to raise the welfare of the peoples.