Shukhov Tower
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Shukhov radio tower (Russian: Шуховская башня), also known as the Shabolovka tower is a broadcasting tower in Moscow designed by Vladimir Shukhov. The 160-metre-high free-standing steel structure was built in 1919–1922 during the Russian Civil War. It is a hyperboloid structure (hyperbolic shell) composed of hyperboloids of revolution.
The tower is located a few kilometers south of the Moscow Kremlin, but is not accessible to tourists. The street address of the tower is "Shabolovka Street, 37", hence the tower's informal name.
Contents |
[edit] History
The graceful tower, one of two hundred designed by Vladimir Shukhov, was projected to attain the height of 350 metres, but severe shortages of steel in post-Civil War Russia led to the height being reduced to 160 metres. His construction methods were also innovative: the tower was raised according to his own telescopic method of assembly.
This tower is acknowledged as one of the most beautiful and prominent achievements of engineering thought, the masterpiece of engineering art.
The most graceful among the inventions of V.G.Shukhov are the metal lattice shells. The structure of a typical Shukhov tower is also a lattice shell in the form of a single-cavity hyperboloid of revolution. Shukhov was the first in the world to invent and use in construction the lattice metal shells in the form of hanging and arch-shaped overhead covers and hyperboloid towers (patents of Russian Empire №1894, №1895, №1896 dated March 12, 1899, declared by Shukhov on 27.03.1895 - 11.01.1896). For the 1896 All-Russia industrial and art exhibition in Nizhniy Novgorod V.G.Shukhov built eight gigantic pavilions with hanging and arch-shaped lattice overhead covers of the total area of 25070 square meters and the steel lattice 37-meter tower, which became the first hyperboloid structure in the world. The astonishing lattice structures caused delight of the European specialists. The English magazine "The Engineer" published an article about the Shukhov tower and about the overhead covers at the 1896 exhibition in Nizhniy Novgorod - "The Nijni-Novgorod exhibition: Water tower, room under construction, springing of 91 feet span", The Engineer, 1897, № 19.3. - P. 292-294: ill. After the exhibition had closed, the openwork tower of rare beauty was bought by the well-known Maecenas of that time Yu.S. Nechaev-Maltsov and placed in his estate Polibino, Lipetsk Oblast, where it has preserved until now under the state protection. In the subsequent years, V.G.Shukhov developed numerous structures of various lattice steel shells and used them in hundreds of buildings: overhead covers of public buildings and industrial objects, water towers, sea lighthouses, masts of warships and supports for power transmission lines. The hyperboloid structures and lattice shells appeared abroad only 10 years after the Shukhov's invention. The Shukhov tower in Shabolovka, Moscow had become the highest of Shukhov's towers.
Later, such famous architects as Antonio Gaudi, Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer used hyperboloid structures in their creative work. The authors of the modern lattice shells are Frei Otto, Norman Foster, Frank Gehry.
The international scientific conference "Heritage at Risk. The preservation of the XX century architecture and the World's heritage", which was held in Moscow in April, 2006 with the participation of 170 specialists from 30 countries of the world, acknowledged the Shukhov Tower to be the object of the world's heritage.
In 2007 the Shukhov Tower became 85 years old and it needs a serious expertise and restoration. It is expedient to restore the tower with the participation of domestic and foreign specialists, the competent scientific institutions and public organizations.
[edit] Structure
Thanks to its lattice structure, the steel shell of Shukhov Tower in Shabolovka experiences minimum wind load, which is the main hazard for high-rising buildings. The tower sections are single-cavity hyperboloids of rotation made of straight beams, the ends of which rest against circular foundations. The openwork steel structure combines strength and lightness, allowing the Shukhov Tower to use three times less metal per unit of height than the Eiffel Tower in Paris. According to the initial plan, the Shukhov Tower was to match the Eiffel Tower's height of 350, but the Shukhov Tower's estimated mass was only 2200 tons; the Eiffel Tower weighs 7300 tons. However, during the Civil war the government could not find enough steel profiles to complete the original plan of the tower. Shukhov had to develop a second plan for the tower's structure with the height of 148,5 meters. Later, after the installation of two beams and a flagpole the height of the Shukhov Tower reached 160 meters. The round conic case of the tower consists of 6 sections with the height of 25 meters each. The lower section is mounted on a concrete foundation 40 meters in diameter and 3 meters deep. The construction of the tower was conducted by the telescopic method - without scaffolding and lifting cranes. The upper sections were assembled inside the lower one by turns and with the help of pulleys and winches were lifted onto each other. During its more than 80-year history the Shukhov Tower served as a support for the antennas of big radio and TV stations: Moscow radiotelegraph station, 40-kWatt broadcasting station "Big Komintern", Moscow TV center.
[edit] See also
- Vladimir Shukhov
- Hyperboloid structure
- List of Hyperboloid structures
- Shukhov tower on the Oka River
- Constructivist architecture
- List of towers
[edit] External links
(English)
- International campaign to save the Shukhov Tower in Moscow
- Shukhov Towers in Google Maps
- Shuhovskaya Tower in the Structurae database
- 3D model of the Shukhov Tower
- Views of the hyperboloid tower
- Richard Pare's photo of the Shukhov Tower
- Invention of Hyperboloid Structures
(German)
(Italian)
(Chinese)
[edit] References
(English)
- P.Gössel, G.Leuthäuser, E.Schickler; "Architecture in the 20th century"; Taschen Verlag; 1990; ISBN 3-8228-4123-4.
- Elizabeth C. English, “Arkhitektura i mnimosti”: The origins of Soviet avant-garde rationalist architecture in the Russian mystical-philosophical and mathematical intellectual tradition”, a dissertation in architecture, 264 p., University of Pennsylvania, 2000.
(German)
- “Vladimir G. Suchov 1853-1939. Die Kunst der sparsamen Konstruktion.”, Rainer Graefe und andere, 192 S., Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart, 1990, ISBN 3-421-02984-9.
- Jesberg, Paulgerd Die Geschichte der Bauingenieurkunst, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart (Germany) , ISBN 3-421-03078-2, 1996; pp. 198-9.
- Ricken, Herbert Der Bauingenieur, Verlag für Bauwesen, Berlin (Germany) , ISBN 3-345-00266-3, 1994; pp. 230.
(French)
- Picon, Antoine (dir.), "L'art de l'ingenieur : constructeur, entrepreneur, inventeur", Éditions du Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1997, ISBN 2-85850-911-5
[edit] Photos
 The world's first hyperboloid structure by Vladimir Shukhov, Polibino, Lipetsk Oblast, 2006 |
|||
