Shukhov Tower in Polibino

The Shukhov Tower in Polibino is the world's first diagrid hyperboloid structure designed in 1896 by Russian engineer and architect Vladimir Shukhov.[1][2][3][4] The tower is today located in the former estate of Yury Nechaev-Maltsov in the selo of Polibino in Lipetsk Oblast in Russia.

The world's first diagrid hyperboloid 37-meter water tower by Vladimir Shukhov, All-Russian Exposition, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 1896

The world's first hyperboloid structure in Polibino, 2009

History

Vladimir Shukhov invented hyperboloid towers and was also the first one to use them in construction. For the 1896 All-Russia industrial and art exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod he built the 37-meter steel diagrid tower, which became the first hyperboloid structure in the world. The hyperboloid steel gridshell attracted attention of European observers. In particular, the British magazine The Engineer published an article about the tower.[5]

After the exhibition closed, the openwork tower was bought by a leading glassware manufacturer and art sponsor, Yury Nechaev-Maltsov. It was relocated to his estate in Polibino where it has been preserved until now.[6] The estate is currently under state protection (federal level) as a former property of the Nechayev family.[7] The estate consists of a palace, English park, regular gardens, ponds, and more.

In the subsequent years, Vladimir Shukhov developed numerous structures of various hyperboloid steel gridshells and used them in hundreds of water towers, sea lighthouses, masts of warships and supports for power transmission lines. Similar hyperboloid structures appeared abroad only ten years after Shukhov's invention.

See also

• List of hyperboloid structures

References

1. pp. 110–114, «Vladimir G. Suchov 1853—1939. Die Kunst der sparsamen Konstruktion.», Rainer Graefe, Ph. D., und andere, 192 S., Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart, 1990, ISBN 3-421-02984-9
2. «The Nijni-Novgorod exhibition: Water tower, room under construction, springing of 91 feet span», «The Engineer», № 19.3.1897, pp. 292–294, London, 1897.
3. «Arkhitektura i mnimosti»: The origins of Soviet avant-garde rationalist architecture in the Russian mystical-philosophical and mathematical intellectual tradition", Elizabeth Cooper English, Ph. D., a dissertation in architecture, 264 p., University of Pennsylvania, 2000.
4. Vladimir Shukhov and the Invention of Hyperboloid Structures
5. "The Nijni-Novgorod exhibition: Water tower, room under construction, springing of 91 feet span", The Engineer, 1897, № 19.3. – pp. 292–294
6. "Hyperboloid water tower". International Database and Gallery of Structures. Nicolas Janburg, ICS. 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-28.
7. Усадьба Нечаевых-Мальцевых (in Russian). ФГУП ГИВЦ Минкультуры России. Retrieved 15 June 2012.

External links

• The research of the Shukhov's world's first hyperboloid structure, Prof. Dr. Armin Grün
• Photos of Polibino and vicinities
• William Craft Brumfield: "The Origins of Modernism in Russian Architecture", University of California Press, 1991, ISBN 0-520-06929-3.
• Elizabeth C. English: "Invention of Hyperboloid Structures", Metropolis & Beyond, 2005.
• 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.

(in German)

• Rainer Graefe, Jos Tomlow: “Vladimir G. Suchov 1853–1939. Die Kunst der sparsamen Konstruktion.”, 192 S., Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart, 1990, ISBN 3-421-02984-9.

(in Italian)

• Fausto Giovannardi: "Vladimir G. Shukhov e la leggerezza dell’acciaio", Borgo San Lorenzo, 2007.

Photos

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