Lappo_Anglysky_141_2014

ject was initiated in the 1960ies, when the engineers realized that the tilt was increasing in combination with a softer foundation. Many methods for stabilizing the Leaning Tower had been discussed, including the addition of 800 tons of lead counterweights to the raised end of the base. Later, in 1990, a massive restoration and stabilization project was initialized. During this project, the Leaning Tower was closed to the public and the bells were removed to relieve some weight. The plan was to straighten up the tower by removing some quantity of soil from underneath using special drills. In order to keep the Leaning Tower stable during this daring project, several heavy cables were cinched around the third level and anchored several hundred meters away. In 2001, the project was finally completed and the Leaning Tower had been straightened by 45 centimeters, returning to the exact position it had in 1838. The tower is 55.8 m (183.2 ft) tall on the lowest side and 56.7 m (186 ft) on the highest side. It has 294 steps and prior to restoration work between 1990 and 2001. Initially, it had an incline of 5.5 degrees.

The tower now leans at a much more manageable 3.99 degrees. The 56 meter high Leaning Tower of Pisa is world famous, not only for its beautiful looks, but mainly for its heavy tilt. It is one of the heaviest leaning towers in the world – and for sure the most famous one.

A massive ongoing facelift and construction boom has kept the United Arab Emirates in the international spotlight* for well over a decade now. Artificial islands, record-high towers and many other wonders have made Abu Dhabi and Dubai popular destinations for expat* workers and tourists alike.

The skyscraper Capital Gate is a 160 m-high (520 ft) tower that features a dramatic 18 degree lean to the west. The Abu Dhabi landmark has an inclination four and a half times higher than the Tower of Pisa. The building has a diagrid* especially designed to absorb and channel the forces created by wind and seismic pressure, as well as the gradient of Capital Gate.

The inclination of the Capital Gate building has been achieved through an engineering program according to which floor plates* are stacked vertically up to the 12th storey, and staggered over each other by between 300 mm to 1400 mm, which allows for the tower’s inclination. Capital Gate was designed by architectural firm RMJM and its construction has already been completed. Capital Gate houses a 5-star Hyatt Capital Gate hotel and additional office space.

Notes:

*to be in the spotlight – привлечь общественное внимание, находиться в фокусе общественного внимания (spotlight: an area of immediate public attention)

*expat– экспатриант, эмигрант (= expatriate)

*diagrid – перекрытие из диагональных и перекрестных элементов

*floor plate (=a flat board on a floor used to support wall studs) – ме-

таллическая пластина для крепления стоек)

Questions:

1.What two architectural landmarks are compared in the text?

2.Which of them is older?

3.Which of them was built in our days?

4.When was the bell tower of the Pisa cathedral constructed?

5.What caused of its incline?

6.How much has the Tower been straightened?

7.How high is the Capital Gate skyscraper?

8.What lean does it feature?

9.Which of the two landmarks has a higher inclination?

10.What has made Abu Dhabi a popular destination?

11.What has the diagrid in the building been designed for?

12.How has the inclination of the Capital Gate building been achieved?

13.What architectural firm was responsible for designing the project?

14.What is the building used for?

Exercise 1

Find the Russian translations in section B for the English words and word groups in section A:

Aerror, afterthought, landmark, historical legacy, bell tower, tilt, shift, be subject to, be initiated, lead counterweights, base, relieve some weight, drills, cinch around, anchor, straighten, incline (inclination), lean, facelift, destination, skyscraper Capital Gate, diagrid.

Bсвинцовые противовесы, небоскреб «Столичные врата», наклоняться, закреплять, перекрытие из диагональных и перекрестных элементов, мысль, пришедшая в голову слишком поздно, бурильные установки, в голову слишком поздно, основание (сооружения), колокольня, смещение (смещаться), начинаться, натягивать

вокруг чего-л., уклон (наклон, скат), историческое наследие, косметический ремонт, ориентир (архитектурный памятник), облегчить вес, место назначения, подвергаться, ошибка, распрямлять, наклон (наклонное положение)

Exercise 2

Match the words/word groups from A section with their synonyms in B section:

Amulti storey building, a slight change in position, hold fast, be subject, a structure of unusual historical or aesthetic interest, purpose of a journey, start, unbend, mistake, footing, counterbalance.

Bbase, counterweight, error, be subject, landmark, destination, initiate, anchor, skyscraper, straighten, shift, be exposed.

Exercise 3

Read the sentences below providing some basic information on the Tower of Pisa and study the table below:

The architect who designed the Tower is still unknown. The height of the Tower is 55.8 meters from the ground. The Tower is an 8-storey building.

The leaning Tower of Pisa was designed as a circular bell tower. The Tower’s height is 186 feet.

It is constructed of white marble.

The construction work of the Tower began on August 9, 1173. The Tower was completed in 1360.

The top of the leaning tower of Pisa is about 17 feet off the vertical.

Now, make up several sentences about the Capital Gate using information from the table below.

You may need the following verbs: be, have, accommodate/house, lean, locate, complete

Exercise 5

Study the table below and form the Past Perfect (Active and Passive) of the following verbs:

know; build; remove; achieve; discuss; begin.

Make up sentences with these verbs.

Exercise 6

Find all examples of using the Present Perfect and Past Perfect in the text. What do these two tenses express?

Exercise 7

Change the verbs in brackets so that they are used in the Past Perfect (Active or Passive) and translate the sentences:

1.When I started working for the construction firm, Mr. Willis (work) there for 20 years.

2.During his presentation, Mr. Brown mentioned all the building materials that (use) in the construction process.

3.Before the job of the chief engineer was finally offered to Mr. Smith, the company (receive) numerous letters of application.

4.Although the construction (calculate) very carefully, there occurred cracking in the building.

5.Before the start of the international competition for the concept and financial model for Park «Russia» was announced, a considerable work on planning the event (do).

Exercise 8

Change the verbs in brackets so that they are used in the Present Perfect (Active or Passive) and translate the sentences:

1.The company (achieved) a considerable progress in regard to applying modern techniques of construction.

2.An offer of employment (make) to Mr. Wills.

3.A new construction project (complete).

4.An Ashford-based building company (prosecute) for repeatedly failing to manage risks on a construction site and exposing workers to needless risk of injury.

5.The architects from Kazan Epifanov and Asse (get) the Art Newspaper Russia prize for the restoration of Nizhny Novgorod's «Arsenal» building.

Exercise 9

Find Participles I and II in the text and define their function in the sentence.

Exercise 10

Translate the following sentences paying attention at the Participles. Define their function in the sentence.

1.Problems in construction have existed for as long as architecture itself has enclosed our spaces.

2.An architect is a person trained and licensed to plan, design, and oversee the construction of buildings.

3.The occurring construction defects include facade failure, water leakage, corrosion, incompatibility of materials, wear and tear of materials, etc.

4.Having interconnected four corner columns by edge beams the builders formed a rigid framed structure.

5.The existing building can’t be adapted to changing circumstances.

6.Using insulation, we should remember that its degree provided by a single-layer wall depends on the wall weight.

7.The panels are attached to a supporting framework

8.During the sale or purchase of a private house, homeowners and realtors may be concerned about possible construction defects.

9.The construction defects can be caused by poor design, poor construction, poor choice of materials or defective materials.

10.Contemporary architecture in Iceland draws its influences from many sources, with styles varying greatly around the country.

11.The functionalist architectural style arrived in Iceland in the 1930s, brought by younger architects who would later have great influence on the urban planning of the country.

12.The simple peasant furniture, graphics and products produced by Morris and others were elongated and stretched into more linear/organic forms.

13.Foundations are the elements affecting transition between the building and the ground.

14.Built in 1969, the Fernsehturm (TV tower) in Berlin can be seen from many of Berlin's central districts.

15.A firm foundation, including properly installed footings of adequate size to support the structure and prevent excessive settlement, is essential to the satisfactory performance of buildings including raised floor systems.

Home Task

Find two images in the internet showing two different structures that could serve as an illustration to the title of the Unit («Old versus New») and make a short report about them in the PowerPoint program.

Text B

Weird Houses

Die Welt Steht Kopf House, Germany, (left) and a summer cottage in the outskirts of Saint-Petersburg, Russia (right)

There are a few absolute necessities in life, primarily food, water, and shelter. A house will for the most part give someone a chance to have all of these three things in one nice, simple package. Houses, particularly these days, are generally ordinary and tend to look very boring. Walls, a roof, a foundation, and a toilet or two are all you really need to be part of a standard housing development. Of course, there are some people who find such conformity ridiculous and who build and live in some of the strangest, the most unique houses you will ever come across. Their architectural design, which is usually environmentally friendly, allows for comfortable living in different climates harnessing energy to make them fuel efficient and futuristic. Unique house siding designs, interior decorations, mixture of materials and locations make these homes great targets for living.

Such architecture has become to be known as novelty architecture or programmatic architecture. It is considered to take origin in the USA in the 1930 s. Later it spread to the rest of the world as travel by automobile increased. An example of the novelty architecture is the Statue of Liberty in New York, which is a replica building that is partly a sculpture and partly a monument. Like many subsequent examples of novelty architecture, it has an accessible interior and has become a tourist attraction. The novelty architecture may take the form of objects not normally associated with buildings, such as animals, people or household objects. There may be an element of caricature or a cartoon associated with the architecture. Such giant animals, fruits and vegetables, or replicas of famous buildings often serve as attractions themselves. Some are simply unusual shapes or constructed of unusual materials.

There are, for instance, upside down houses: they are more common than you would think. Why would anyone want to build an upside-down house? It is very hard to find a rational answer for this question. Perhaps the artists and designers of these flipped out homes wanted to shake up the way we think of society’s most pressing need, shelter. Maybe they just wanted to stand out from the crowd. In that, at least, they have succeeded. However, it is impossible not to stop and stare at these unorthodox structures. What makes these buildings even more interesting is that they are actually used, as opposed to just being art installations.

One of such houses is the notorious house with the German name «Die Welt Steht Kopf» (or, if translated into English, «The World Stands on its Head») located on the island of Usedom, Germany, in the Baltic Sea. It was opened to the public as a museum in the autumn of 2008. This upside down house, complete with interior furnishings, is the brainchild of the architects Klaudiusz Golos and Sebastian Mikiciuk, who carried the theme of upside downness to the inside as well. Here, the entire furniture is attached to the ceiling, even children’s puppets and fire trucks are stuck in the play area at the up there.

From the foundation to the furnishings, nothing is right-side-up at the house. The very first step through the door of the house leads to confusion. Dizziness is what any visitor feels who steps inside this house. The 120-square-foot house has a slight tilt. The house is the main attraction of the island visited by almost 20 000 tourists per year.

Not only Germans like the idea of weird houses. Some Russians are also fond of it and even live in such houses. For example, there is not much information available to explain why a homeowner in St. Petersburg, Russia, built his home upside down. Perhaps he wanted to make a statement on the status of the Russian real estate market. Perhaps he was holding the blueprints upside down. In the picture, you can see the Russian upside-down house after completion. Note the decorative brickwork along the base, which is, in fact, the top of the walls. Anyway, one should note also the doghouse in the yard which was not built upside down and looks quite normal. Was it built for the family pet Laika?

Answer the questions:

1.What kind of houses is the text about?

2.What is the purpose of their creation?

3.What are the reasons, according to the author, which make home owners wish the upside down design?

4.What architectural trend are such houses associated with?

5.When and where did this trend take its origin?

6.Which two houses are described in the text?

7.What is the difference between them?

8.What is better in your opinion, a house built to an individual design, or a house of mass series construction? Give your reasons.

Exercise 1

Match the words / word groups in section A with their definitions in section B:

A real estate market, slight tilt, housing development, to succeed, unique houses, fuel efficient designs/houses, environmentally friendly design, blueprints, shelter, base, unorthodox structures, to take origin.

B building’s footing, to reach success in something, unusual structures, some insignificant inclination, a segment in the market where living property can be bought and sold, a design taking into consideration all issues associated with environment, structures built so as to be economical concerning the consumption of energy, to originate, a living district, houses with designs that you can’t find anywhere else in the world, some place where a person can hide from the outside weather conditions and live, drawings used by builders in the process of constructing.

Exercise 2

Translate the following sentences paying attention at the Modal Verbs

1.People need places to live, work, play, learn, worship, meet, govern, shop, and eat.

2.Architects ought to be responsible for designing these places, whether they are private or public; indoors or outdoors; or rooms, buildings, or complexes.

3.Architects must discuss with clients the objectives, requirements, and budget of a project.

4.In some cases, architects are to provide various predesign services, such as feasibility and environmental impact studies, site selection, cost analyses and land-use studies, and design requirements.

5.After discussing and agreeing on the initial proposal, architects have to develop final construction plans that show the building’s appearance and details for its construction.

6.Developing designs architects must follow building codes, zoning laws, fire regulations, and other ordinances, such as those requiring easy access by people who are disabled.

7.Computer-aided design and drafting (CADD) and building information modeling (BIM) technologies are able to replace traditional drafting paper and pencil as the most common methods for creating designs and construction drawings.

8.Architects also may help clients get construction bids, select contractors, and negotiate construction contracts.

9.As construction proceeds, architects should visit building sites to ensure that contractors follow the design, keep to the schedule, use the specified materials, and meet work-quality standards.

10.The construction work can not be considered complete until all everything is finished, required tests are conducted, and construction costs are paid.

Exercise 3

Write a short summary of the text. Your summary should contain about ten sentences.

Exercise 4

Write a composition expressing your opinion regarding the topic «Unique versus Typical in Architecture».

Home Task

Look up in the internet and find information on some contemporary architectural design that can be regarded a weird one and make a short report about it.

Unit 3

Towers

Text A

Towers

A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are generally built to take advantage of their height, and can stand alone on the ground, or as part of a larger structure or device such as a fortified building or as an integral part of a bridge *[1], the term also denoting a raised structure on a ship or other vehicle. In history, simple towers like lighthouses, bell towers, clock towers, signal towers and minarets were used to communicate information over greater distances.

Towers can also be used to support bridges, and can reach heights that rival some of the tallest buildings above water. Their use is most prevalent in suspension bridges and cable-stayed bridges. The use of the pylon, a simple tower structure, has also helped to build railroad bridges, mass-transit systems, and harbors. Control towers are used to give visibility to help direct aviation traffic. Towers have been used by mankind since prehistoric times.

The Chinese used towers as integrated elements of the Great Wall of China [2] in 210 BC during the Qin Dynasty. Towers were also an important element of castles. Another well – known tower is the Leaning Tower of Pisa [3] in Pisa, Italy built from 1173 until 1372. The Himalayan Towers [4] are stone towers located chiefly in Tibet built approximately XIV to XV century.

A modern type of tower, the skyscraper [5], has a steel framework from which curtain walls are suspended, rather than load-bearing walls of conventional construction. The steel frame enables to erect buildings

taller than ones having load-bearing walls of reinforced concrete. However, sometimes skyscrapers can have curtain walls that mimick conventional walls and a small surface area of windows. Skyscrapers are often not classified as towers, although most have the same design and structure of towers. The tower throughout history has provided its users with an advantage in surveying defensive positions and obtaining a better view of the surrounding areas, including battlefields. They were installed on defensive walls. Today, strategic-use towers [6] are still used as prisons, military camps, and defensive perimeters. By using gravity to move objects or substances downward, a tower can be used to store items or liquids like a storage silo or a water tower [7].

Notes:

*See the pictures in the Visual Appendix to Unit 3 corresponding to the reference numbers.

Answer the questions:

1.What kind of structure is a tower?

2.What is a general advantage of such structures?

3.Which towers were intended to communicate information over greater distances?

4.Where are towers used to support construction elements?

5.What was the application of the control towers?

6.Which tower is well known all over the world and is a tourist attraction?

7.What is the difference between a skyscraper and a building of conventional construction?

8.Where are strategic towers used?

Exercise 1

Find the Russian translations in section B for the English words/word groups in section A:

A by a significant margin, height, visibility, cable-stayed bridges, pylon, mass-transit systems, integrated elements, steel framework, skyscraper, curtain walls, load-bearing walls, of conventional construction, suspension bridges, mimick, surveying defensive positions, storage silo, take advantage, reinforced concrete, erect buildings.

B небоскреб, подражать, воспользоваться преимуществом, несущие стены, высота, висячие мосты, вантовые мосты, системы общественного транспорта, стальной каркас, возводить здания, железобетон, обзорные оборонные сооружения, силосная башня, в значительной степени, обзорность, пилон, подвесные стены, обычной конструкции.

Exercise 2

Read the text and find the terms associated with types of towers and their functions. Make up a list of these terms.

Exercise 3

Find in the text the English equivalent of the following Russian verbs:

обозначать; сообщать, передавать; поддерживать; достигать; подвешивать; воздвигать; классифицировать; обозревать; получать; подражать; окружать; устанавливать; передвигать, перемещать; хранить.

Exercise 4

Study the table, write down all the forms of the Infinitive for the following verbs:

take, fortify, denote, communicate, use, build, integrate, know, suspend, bear, survey, reinforce, classify, provide.

Exercise 5

Find all the Infinitives in the text and define their functions in the sentence.

Exercise 6

Translate the following sentences paying attention to the infinitives and define their function in the sentence.

1.To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design and construction of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that have as their principal purpose, human occupancy, or use.

2.The Romans made extensive use of the arch to distribute thrust more evenly.

3.We expect the builders to show good results.

4.The construction of the factory is believed to finish at the end of this year.

5.The usual design technique is to check the footing stresses in order to assure the adequate thickness.

6.To make a joint watertight certain materials should be used.

7.Galvanised steel bolts are used to connect the wall panel to the roof beam above.

8.To keep the masonry everywhere in compression is the main object of the structural design.

9.Wooden structures are then destroyed once the concrete has cured sufficiently for the forms to be removed.

10.We know the building technique to be an important branch of modern construction.

11.Walking round St. Petersburg, it is impossible not to wonder at the sheer wealth and variety of architecture created for over 300 years.

12.In contrast to the drab tower blocks of the outskirts, almost none of the buildings in the historical centre can be described as utilitarian.

13.Immediately after World War I, pioneering modernist architects sought to develop a completely new style appropriate for a new post-war social and economic order, focused on meeting the needs of the middle and working classes.

14.University graduates specializing in architecture have become educated to encourage the facilitation of environmentally sustainable design, rather than solutions based primarily on immediate cost.

Exercise 7

Make up sentences using the following infinitives as adverbial modifiers of purpose:

reduce the cost of construction; take advantage of the materials’ properties; economize; to make the project feasible; to facilitate the implementation of the plan, become an architect.

Models:

a)To reduce the cost of construction, the engineers used the cheapest building materials.

b)In order to reduce the cost of construction, the engineers used the cheapest building materials.

c)The engineers used the cheapest building materials to reduce the cost of construction.

Exercise 8

Study the following table and find in the text comparative and superlative degree of the adjectives:

Exercise 9

Translate the following sentences paying attention to the comparative and superlative degree of the adjectives:

1.The gallery is a less prominent feature of the interior than in earlier churches.

2.Perhaps, the finest of all such doors is the South porch at Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire.

3.One of the most characteristic interiors at Salisbury is the Lady Chapel at the extreme east end, which is a miniature hall church.

4.Le Corbusier's post-war buildings rejected his earlier industrial forms and utilized vernacular materials, brute concrete and articulated structure.

5.Eiffel Tower, the tallest structure in the world until the Empire State Building was built about 40 years later, had several antecedents.

6.A column may be much larger than structurally necessary simply to reassure us that it is indeed big enough for the job.

7.The oldest monuments constructed about 6.000 years ago are the colossal pyramids in Egypt.

8.Venice is the most beautiful city in the world, and the only one that can truly be described as unique.

9.The Seine and the bridges that cross it, the grand boulevards, the monumental squares, the magnificent monuments, the charming streets of Montmartre – these images of Paris confirm that it is indeed the most elegant and sophisticated of all cities.

10.Although, Lisbon is less known to tourists than Paris, it is one of the world's most scenic cities.

Home task

Study the contents of the Visual Appendix to Unit 3 and fulfill the tasks.

Choose an object of architecture or engineering that can be described using adjectives in the superlative degree, get more information about it in the internet and prepare a short presentation in the PowerPoint program.

Text B

Vladimir Shukhov

Vladimir Grigoryevich Shukhov (1853–1939) was a Russian engi- neer-polymath, scientist and architect renowned for his pioneering works on new methods of analysis for structural engineering that led to breakthroughs* in industrial design of world's first hyperboloid structures*, diagrid shell structures*, tensile structures*, gridshell structures*, oil reservoirs, pipelines, boilers, ships and barges.

Besides the innovations he brought to the oil industry and the construction of numerous bridges and buildings, Shukhov was the inventor of a new family of doubly curved structural forms. These forms, based on nonEuclidean hyperbolic geometry, are known today as hyperboloids of revolution. Shukhov developed not only many varieties of light-weight hyperboloid towers and roof systems, but also the mathematics for their analysis. Shukhov is particularly reputed for his original designs of hyperboloid towers such as the Shukhov Tower (see the picture below).

He was born in a small town in Kursk province (in present-day Belgorod Oblast). His father was the Director of the local branch of the St. Petersburg state bank. At the age of 11, Vladimir entered Saint Petersburg gymnasium. Already as a schoolboy, he showed mathematical talents, once demonstrating to his classmates and teacher an original proof of the Pythagorean theorem. He graduated with distinction and a Gold Medal in 1871 and entered the Emperor’s Moscow Technical School in Moscow (now the Moscow State Technical University – MGTU ). They proposed to him a job as a lecturer in mathematics at the Imperial Moscow Technical School, but Shukhov decided to seek a job in the industry instead. Shukhov participated in the trip to USA, the aim of which was the collecting of information about the latest technical

achievements. Shukhov visited the World exhibition in Philadelphia and studied the arrangement of the American railway transport. For some time, he stayed in Philadelphia to work on the Russian pavilion at the World's Fair and to study the inner workings of the American industry.

On coming back to Russia, Shukhov assumed the office of Chief Engineer in a new company specializing in innovative engineering. In 1892, Shukhov built his first railway bridges. In the subsequent years, 417 bridges were built according to his projects at the different railway lines. Simultaneously with the construction of bridges, Shukhov started the development of the overhead cover structures. Shukhov managed to design and practically realize the structures of various coverings distinguishing with such a principal novelty, that it would be just enough for him to take a special, honorable place among the famous engineersbuilders of that time. Till 1890 Shukhov created exclusively light arch structures with thin inclined tightening. Even today, these arches serve as bearing elements of the glass vault over the biggest Moscow shops: GUM and Petrovskiy arcade.

In 1895, Shukhov submitted the claim for a patent on lattice coverings in the form of shells. That meant lattices from strip and angle steel with rhombus-shaped cells. They were used to build the big-span light hanging coverings and lattice vaults. The development of these lattice coverings marked the creation of a completely new type of bearing structure. For the first time Shukhov shaped a hanging covering into a finished spatial structure, which was used again only decades later. Even in comparison with the structure of metal vaults highly developed by that time, his lattice vaults formed only of one type of core elements represented a significant step forward. In this connection, in his basic research of the metal construction structures.

During the All-Russia exhibition in Nizhniy Novgorod in 1896, Shukhov presented to the public's judgment his new structures of the overhead covers. Totally, there were built eight exhibition pavilions of the sufficiently impressive sizes. Besides, in the center of one of the halls with lattice hanging covering there was a hanging covering made of thin tin-plate (membrane), which had never been used earlier in construction. Besides those pavilions, there was built a unique lattice steel water tower in the form of a hyperboloid shell. The constructions got wide resonance and the foreign press reported in detail about Shukhov's structures. The surprise was caused by a high technical perfection of the constructions. The success at the exhibition may for certain explain the fact that in the

subsequent years Shukhov got a lot of orders for the construction of factory workshops, roofed railway platforms and water towers.

One of his works was the workshop with spatially bent lattice shells for the metallurgical plant built in Vyksa (a town in Nizhny Novgorod region) in 1897. In comparison with ordinary vaults with a single curvature this structure meant a significant constructional improvement. Luckily, this bold structure of the overhead cover, the early predecessor of the modern lattice shells, has preserved in the small provincial town until now.

The structure of the tower, exhibited at Nizhniy Novgorod, which was a lattice steel shell in the form of a hyperboloid of rotation, enjoyed the biggest commercial success. Shukhov patented this invention shortly before the opening of the exhibition. The shell of the hyperboloid of rotation was a completely new constructional form, never used before. It allowed creating a spatially bent lattice surface out of straight cores installed with an inclination. As a result, the structure of the tower turned out to be light and rigid. At the height of 25.60 meters, the Nizhniy Novgorod water tower carried a tank with a capacity of 114.000 liters to supply the whole territory of the exhibition with water.

The first in the world hyperboloid structure designed by V. Shukhov in 1896. (Nizhniy Novgorod, All-Russian Fair)

This world’s first hyperboloid tower has remained one of the most beautiful constructions of Shukhov. It was sold to a rich landowner Ne- chaev-Maltsev, who installed it in his estate Polibino near Lipetsk. The tower stays there even today. The immediately increased demand for water towers brought a lot of orders. In comparison with ordinary towers,

the Shukhov’s lattice tower was more convenient and cheaper in respect of constructional techniques.

After the October Revolution, Shukhov decided to stay in the Soviet Union despite having received alluring job offers from around the world. Many Soviet engineering projects of the 1920s were associated with his name. In 1919, he framed his slogan: We should work independently from politics. The buildings, boilers, beams would be needed and so would we. After the Soviet Russia had been formed, Shukhov got one of the main constructional orders: the construction of a tower for the radio station in Shabolovka in Moscow. The tower was the further modification of lattice hyperboloid structures and it consisted of six blocks of the appropriate form. In 1922, the radio station tower was put in operation. This unbelievably light, openwork tower with details, that win over by their simplicity and the original form, is the pattern of a brilliant structure and the acme of the constructional art. The construction of the Shukhov Tower caused general delight.

In the later 1930s during the Great Purge* he retired from engineering work but was not arrested or persecuted. Shukov died on February 2, 1939 in Moscow and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery. His many honours included the Lenin Prize (1929) and the title of Hero of Labour (1932).

Notes:

*breakthrough – прорыв (например, в науке или технике)

*Great Purge («Великая чистка») – термин современной историографии, характеризующий период наиболее массовых репрессий

иполитических преследований в СССР 1937–1938 гг.

*hyperboloid structures – гиперболоидные конструкции, т.е. сооружения в форме однополостного гиперболоида или гиперболического параболоида. Такие конструкции, несмотря на свою кривизну, строятся из прямых балок.

*disagree shell structures– оболочечная конструкция с использованием перекрытия из диагональных перекрестных элементов

*tensile structure – растяжимая конструкция.

*gridshell structures – решетчатая оболочечная конструкция.

*doubly curved structural forms – конструкционные формы с двойным изгибом.