English for Civil Engineers. Part 1. Учебное пособие

2.2 Text 2 Five points of Le Corbusier's architecture

2.2.1 Memorise the following words

1.succinctly – сжато, кратко

2.elucidate - выяснять

3.bulk – масса, объем; насыпной

4.stilt - ходуля

5.unencumbered – не обремененный

6.tubular - трубчатый

7.navel – центр, середина

2.2.2 Read and translate the text using the dictionary

It was Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye (1929–1931) that most succinctly summed up his five points of architecture that he had elucidated in the journal L'Esprit Nouveau and his book Vers une architecture, which he had been developing throughout the 1920s. First, Le Corbusier lifted the bulk of the structure off the ground, supporting it by pilotis – reinforced concrete stilts. These pilotis, in providing the structural support for the house, allowed him to elucidate his next two points: a free façade, meaning non-supporting walls that could be designed as the architect wished, and an open floor plan, meaning that the floor space was free to be configured into rooms without concern for supporting walls. The second floor of the Villa Savoye includes long strips of ribbon windows that allow unencumbered views of the large surrounding yard, and which constitute the fourth point of his system. The fifth point was the roof garden to compensate for the green area consumed by the building and replacing it on the roof. A ramp rising from ground level to the third floor roof terrace allows for an architectural promenade through the structure. The white tubular railing recalls the industrial "ocean-liner" aesthetic that Le Corbusier much admired.

He took Leonardo's suggestion of the golden ratio in human proportions to an extreme: he sectioned his model human body's height at the navel with the two sections in

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golden ratio, then subdivided those sections in golden ratio at the knees and throat; he used these golden ratio proportions in the Modulor system.

Le Corbusier placed systems of harmony and proportion at the centre of his design philosophy, and his faith in the mathematical order of the universe was closely bound to the golden section and the Fibonacci series, which he described as "rhythms apparent to the eye and clear in their relations with one another. And these rhythms are at the very root of human activities. They resound in Man by an organic inevitability, the same fine inevitability which causes the tracing out of the Golden Section by children, old men, savages, and the learned."

2.2.3 Answer the following questions

1.What does the first point of architecture mean?

2.What do the next two points of architecture mean?

3.What does the fourth point of architecture mean?

4.What does the fifth point of architecture mean?

5.What did Le Corbusier take to an extreme?

6.What did Le Corbusier place at the centre of his design philosophy?

2.2.4 Give back translation to the second passage of the text

2.3 Text 3 Le Corbusier`s Quotations

2.3.1Read and translate the text using the dictionary

1."You employ stone, wood, and concrete, and with these materials you build houses and palaces: that is construction. Ingenuity is at work. But suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy and I say: 'This is beautiful.' That is Architecture. Art enters in..." (Vers une architecture, 1923)

2."Architecture is the masterly, correct, and magnificent play of masses brought together in light."

3."Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep."

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4."The house is a machine for living in." (Vers une architecture, 1923)

5."It is a question of building which is at the root of the social unrest of today: architecture or revolution." (Vers une architecture, 1923)

6."Modern life demands, and is waiting for, a new kind of plan, both for the house and the city." (Vers une architecture, 1923)

7."The 'Styles' are a lie." (Vers une architecture, 1923)

8."Architecture or revolution. Revolution can be avoided." (Vers une architecture,

1923)

2.3.2Answer the following questions:

1.What is architecture for Le Corbusier?

2.According to Le Corbusier what things do men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep?

3.How can you explain the fourth quotation?

4.According to Le Corbusier what does modern life demand?

2.3.3Discuss the eighth quotation of Le Corbusier

2.3.4Make up a monologue about Le Corbusier and his input into the world

architecture

2.4 Text 4 Tom Wright

2.4.1 For questions 1-15 read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only word in each space

Tom Wright is the architect and designer of the Burj al Arab in Dubai, UAE. The Burj Al Arab (Tower of the Arabs) was (1) __ in October 1993 and completed on site in 1999. The lower left image shows Tom Wright′s first drawing of the Burj al Arab concept that was shown to the client in October 1993 which along with the (2) __ card model shown above convinced the client that the tower should be built. The felt pen illustration to the left was an early (3) __ sketch of the hotel drawn by Wright on a paper serviette whilst

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he sat on the terrace of the Chicago Beach hotel which stood adjacent to the site of the

Burj al Arab. The (4)__ to the architect was to create an icon for Dubai, a (5)__ that would

become synonymous with the place, as Sydney has its opera house and Paris the Eiffel

(6)__ so Dubai was to have the Burj al Arab. On the (7) __ page the Atkins Press pack can

be downloaded which (8)__ further information on the Burj al Arab. Tom Wright (9)__ in

Dubai during the design and construction of the project working as the project Design

Director for Atkins one of the world′s (10)__ multi discipline design consultancies. Since

1999 Tom Wright has (11) __ to work for Atkins as Head of Architecture from the Atkins

H.Q. in Epsom, London. Tom Wright is British, born in Croydon a suburb of London on

18th September 1957. Educated at the Royal Russell School and then Kingston

Polytechnic school of Architecture Wright (12) __ a member of the Royal institute of

British Architects in 1983 and has been in practice ever since. FAQ questions & answers

on the design of Burj Al Arab hotel by Tom Wright, Design Director. What was the brief

for the hotel? The client (13) __ us to design a building that would become a (14) __ for

Dubai. Sidney has its Opera House and New York has the Statue of Liberty so Dubai

would also have a building that people would (15) __ with the place.

2.5 Text 5 Tange

2.5.1 For questions 1-10 think of the word which best fits each space

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Tange was born in Sakai, Osaka in 1913. He moved to Hankou, Shanghai and

laterEngland, with his banker father, ___ (1) to Japan in 1920. Tange was strongry influenced by Le Corbusier's books and thought to be an architect in his secondary school days. In 1935, Tange ____ (2) at the Department of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, where he studied architecture, ______(3) his degree and worked as a _______(4) architect at the studio of Kunio Maekawa. Tange worked a few years there and left, backed to the University of Tokyo to study postgraduate _____ (5) in 1941. Tange became an __ (6) professor and opened Tange laboratory in 1946; he was promoted to professor of the Department of Urban Engineering in 1963. As a professor, Tange his ____ (7) included Sachio Otani, Kisho Kurokawa, Arata Isozaki, and Fumihiko Maki who have inherited Tange's architectural style and his philosophy. In 1949, Tange won the architecture _____

(8) for design of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima city, following its atomic bombing in 1945. His ______(9) for Peace Memorial Park owes much to Le Corbusier and is often called "the spiritual core of the city." One reason Tange gave for applying for the job was that he had studied in the city as a secondary student. Tange won international ___

(10) for his design for the gymnasium for the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo. His Pritzker Prize citation described it as "among the most beautiful buildings of the 20th century." He was also known for his "Tokyo Plan" of 1960, which proposed a radical redesign of the city. Although not fully implemented, it influenced architects worldwide. In the 1960s he also designed the new master plan for the capital city of the Republic of Macedonia Skopje, which was heavily damaged by the 1963 earthquake. This plan was also only partially implemented. Tange received AIA Gold Medal in 1966, the Order of Culture in 1980, and the order of the Sacred Treasures in 1994. In 2005, his funeral was

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2.6 Text 6 Eliel Saarinen

2.6.1 Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only one word in each space

Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen was 1) ____ in Rantisalmi, Finland, in 1873. A portion of Eliel Saarinen's 2) _____ was spent in the Russian region of Ingermanland near St. Petersburg, a result of his father being in the clergy. The proximity 3) _____ St. Petersburg provided the young Eliel Saarinen with an urban experience unequaled in more provincial Finland and also gave him access to The Hermitage. Eliel Saarinen initially intended 4)

_____ be a painter, a desire that he acknowledged was stimulated by visits to the museum. 5) _____ graduating from high school in 1893, Eliel Saarinen 6) _____ in the Department of Architecture at the Technical Institute in Helsinki, simultaneously taking drawing courses at Helsinki University. While at the Institute, Eliel Saarinen formed friendships with Herman Gesellius and Armas Lindgren; the three formed an architectural partnership 7) _____ 1896, a year before Eliel Saarinen graduated. The Gesellius, Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen office lasted until 1905, when Lindgren 8)_____ the partnership; Gesellius and Eliel Saarinen continued to practice 9)_____ for two additional years. Eliel Saarinen married Gesellius's sister Louise (Loja) in 1904 (his second marriage); they 10) _____ two children, a daughter Eva-Lisa (Pipsan) and a son Eero.

The 50-year career of Eliel Saarinen (1873-1950) can 11) _____ divided into two parts. Practicing in Finland for 25 years, he 12) _____ established an international reputation based on his "National Romantic" and Jugendstill-inspired architecture. The 13)

_____ phase of Eliel Saarinen's career began when he emigrated to the United States in

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1923, after placing second the 1922 Chicago Tribune Tower competition. While practicing in the United States, Eliel Saarinen also assumed the role of educator, first at 14) _____

University of Michigan and then at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Eliel Saarinen not only designed the Cranbrook complex but, under 15) _____ stewardship, it became one of the most influential design schools in the nation.

2.7 Text 7 Louis Kahn

2.7.1 For questions 1-20, read the text below and look carefully at each line. Some of the lines are correct, and some have a world which should not be there. If a line is correct, put a tick(*). If a line has a world which should not be there, write the word

1 Louis Kahn was a distinguished of American architect who lived in Philadelphia 2 Pennsylvania. Among others, throughout the his career he has been working as a

3professor of architecture and a design from critic at the Yale School of Architecture.

4He has always been fascinated by history and it the ancient ruins of our World, and

5this reflects very well throughout his architectural style.

15After visiting the ruins of ancient buildings in Italy, Greece, and Egypt, he is

16adopted a back–to-the-basics approach. He developed his own style as influenced by

17earlier modern movements, but not limited by their sometimes dogmatic of ideologies.

18In 1961 he received a grant from the Graham Foundation for the Advanced Studies

19in the Fine Arts to are study traffic movement in Philadelphia and create a proposal

20for a viaduct system.

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2.8 Text 8 Carlo Scarpa

2.8.1 Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only one word in each space

At the time ….. his death at the age of 72, Carlo Scarpa was at the height of his fame and influence. His buildings and projects were being studied by architects and

……throughout the world, and his decorative style had become a model for …… wishing to revive craft and luscious materials in the contemporary manner.

Carlo Scarpa was born in Venice on June 2, 1906, the son of an elementary school teacher. When he was 2 years old the family ……… to Vicenza where Carlo Scarpa attended the Technical High School. In 1919, after the death of his mother, the Carlo Scarpa family ……… to Venice, where Carlo attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. After receiving his diploma in 1926, Carlo Scarpa began teaching architectural drawing at the Academy. Carlo Scarpa never completed a full-scale architectural …………. .

His first important comission was the 1935 restoration and renovation of the School of Economics at the University of Venice, in the Ca Foscari. This project was a picture of the future, with elegant glass, metal, and wood details subtly integrated into the architecture of …………Venice.

It was after World War II that Carlo Scarpa's reputation grew to international proportions.

The first important commission of this period was the renovation of the Accademia Museum in Venice, located in an old convent. This ……….. was the first of Carlo Scarpa's museum renovations to exhibit a "minimalist" style within historic buildings. The extraordinary care in the execution of handrails, floor patterns, benches, door pulls, and the like set Carlo Scarpa's work apart from others of his generation. His work greatly influenced that of other Italian ……… designers, most notably Franco Albini.

Carlo Scarpa remained a teacher at the University of Venice throughout the early postwar period, but began to recieve commissions that would become his masterpieces. The most important are the Canova Plaster Cast Gallery in Possagno (Treviso) (19551957); the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona (1956 onward) perhaps his most …………..

masterpiece.

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Carlo Scarpa resisted the postmodern and neorationalist influences of the 1970s, preferring to elaborate a decorative system derived from the materials of modern

………….used in a craft tradition. Carlo Scarpa was in constant touch with his artisans, and his drawings were revised almost daily to reflect a preindustrial attention to old methods of ………. Like many Renaissance architects, Carlo Scarpa rarely got to build an entire building. The exception of this is the Brion Tomb complex in the cemetery at San Vito d'Altivole (Treviso), considered ….. some to be his most fecund and ……… work. It is a complex and difficult work, filled with symbolic gestures. The major elements are an arched bridge that shades the tombs of the Brion spouses, a family tomb, and a chapel. Carlo Scarpa's emblematic step motif and interlocking circular windows are the dominant leitmotifs of the details in this project, along ……a typical use of concrete with more precious materials.

The Brion cemetery was the culmination of Carlo Scarpa's ….., and Carlo Scarpa is appropriately buried there. Carlo Scarpa fell to his death accidentally in Japan in 1978.

2.8.2 Answer these questions

1.Who was Carlo Scarpa`s father?

2.What education did Carlo Scarpa get?

3.Where did Carlo Scarpa teach after the war?

4.What was the culmination of Carlo Scarpa's work?

2.9 Text I Oscar Niemeyer

2.9.1 For questions 1-20, read the text below and think of the word which best fist each space. Use only one word in each space

Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (December 15, 1907 – December 5, 2012), known (1)… Oscar Niemeyer (Brazilian Portuguesewas a Brazilian architect who is considered to (2)…… one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was best known (3)…his design of civic buildings for Brasília, a planned city (4)… became Brazil's capital in 1960, as well as his collaboration with

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