Russian-British high-tech architecture

sergei_arssenev — 14.08.2010

Strolling around London, tourists admire the avant-garde skyscraper-“cucumber” 30 St Mary Axe ("The Gherkin", "Swiss Re") and the overhead cover of the BritishMuseum (BritishMuseum - "Queen Elizabeth II Great Court"). But only few of them know that this delight is aroused by the creative synergy of the two outstanding architects: the Great Russian engineer and architect Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov and the master of the high-tech architecture Lord Norman Foster. The famous British architect constantly uses the bearing lattice structures (lattice shells) invented by Shukhov in his masterpieces.

 Lattice shell of the skyscraper 30 St Mary Axe - "The Gherkin" - "Swiss Re".

The world’s first bearing lattice shells of the overhead covers and towers were built by Vladimir Shukhov in 1896 for the biggest pre-revolution exhibition of Russia - XVI All-Russia industrial and art exhibition in Nizhniy Novgorod. The attention of foreign guests was most of all drawn by the open-work lattice steel hyperboloid water tower.

World’s first hyperboloid lattice tower-shell of Shukhov, 1896

This world’s first hyperboloid lattice structure-shell still exists near the palace of aristocrats Nechaev in Polibino, not far from the Kulikov field. The Great Maecenas and collector of masterpieces Yuriy Stepanovich Nechaev-Maltsov, who presented Russia with the Museum of Fine Arts (at present GMII after A.S. Pushkin in Moscow), was delighted with the graceful open-work structure of Vladimir Shukhov. He bought the tower at the Nizhniy Novgorod exhibition, and under the personal control of Vladimir Shukhov his first lattice shell was installed near the palace of Nechaev-Maltsov in his country estate Polibino (Dankovskiy area of the Lipetsk region). 

 World’s first hyperboloid lattice tower-shell of Shukhov in Polibino.

The British magazine “The Engineer” wrote an enthusiastic article about this avant-garde lattice structure («The Nijni-Novgorod exhibition: Water tower, room under construction, springing of 91 feet span», «The Engineer», № 19.3.1897, P.292-294, London, 1897.). Shukhov’s lattice shells were also described by the German and French magazines. For the invented steel structures in the kind of bearing lattice shells V.G. Shukhov received patents (No. 1894, No. 1895, No. 1896 dated March 12, 1899):

No. 1894 -  the invention of lattice covers for buildings made of the straight bearing elements multiply repeating and intersecting in the kind of quadrangles, which work on tension or pressing, with the hanging and prominent form of the cover;  

No. 1895 – the invention of lattice arch-like covers for buildings made of metal strips put on the edge and bent in the form of a broken line, joined with each other in the bends in such a way that, as a result, it creates a cover consisting of the multiply repeating cells-honeycombs (resembling the bee honeycombs). 

No. 1896 – the invention of lattice towers in the form of hyperboloid of rotation with rectilinear forming lines, which connect ring bases, with the reinforcement by intermediate rings. As a result, the rectilinear forming lines of the hyperboloid form the bearing lattice shell with cells made of straight elements, which work on pressing.

At the end of XIX century and during the first third of XX century on the territory of Russian Empire and USSR according to V.G. Shukhov’s projects were built more than 250 structures. During the XX century lattice structures of bearing shells were used not enough due to the complexity of their calculation without computers. During the second half of XX century the high-tech architects, the famous Buckminster Fuller, Frei Otto and Norman Foster, implemented lattice shells into the modern practice of construction, and in XXI century shells became one of the main means of form-generating the avant-garde buildings.

Now lattice shells have become a creative mean of the high-tech architecture, which pretend to domination in the XXI century. The basis of high-tech is the use of the state-of-the-art technologies. At the end of XX century – the beginning of XXI century the perfection of technologies led to the appearance of extremely earnest and very elegant architecture, the recognized leader of which soon became Lord Norman Foster. “Shukhov is one of my heroes!” – Norman Foster says in his interviews. The famous architects Richard Rogers, Paul Andreu, Santiago Kalatrava, Renzo Piano, Nicholas Grimshaw, Zaha Hadid, Massimiliano Fuksas and others use lattice shells in their creative work. Now lattice shells allow the creation of buildings with a very complex form, including the famous Olympic stadium “Bird’s nest” in Beijing and the amorphous complex “VELA” in Milan.
 

 Lord Norman Foster: overhead cover of the BritishMuseum court, 2000
(V.G. Shukhov’s patents No. 1894 and No. 1895)

Compare Norman Foster’s lattice overhead covers of the British Museum with the overhead covers made by Vladimir Shukhov in 1896 in Nizhniy Novgorod (there are differences, of course, but the idea has not changed). 

Lattice shell of Shukhov’s Oval pavilion (1895) in Nizhniy Novgorod.



 

Composition of Lord Norman Foster, grand-prix at the 2008 architectural biennale in London
(V.G. Shukhov’s patent No. 1894)




Cupola of the skyscraper Mary Axe in Londonу, Norman Foster, 2004 (patents No. 1894,1895)

 
Norman Foster, lattice shells of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2007
(Shukhov’s patent No. 1895)

 Architect Michael Hopkins, overhead cover of the Parliament administrative building court, London, 2008
(Shukhov’s patents No. 1894 and No. 1895)

 Architect Ken Shuttleworth, project VORTEX,
300-meter high hyperboloid skyscraper at the outskirts of London, 2014 (Shukhov’s patent No. 1896)




Architect Ken Shuttleworth, hyperboloid sculpture Aspire Tower
(Shukhov’s patent No. 1896)




Lord Norman Foster, Sage Gateshead, 2004 (patents No. 1894,1895)




Lord Norman Foster, Khan Shatyry Entertainment Centre, 2010 (patent No. 1894)





Hyperboloid bridge in Manchester - Corporation street bridge (Shukhov’s patent No. 1896)





British company ARUP has built in Guangzhou the world’s highest 610-meter lattice hyperboloid TV tower, 2010
(Shukhov’s patent No. 1896)

Lord Norman Foster has called to save the last remaining lattice shell of Vladimir Shukhov
– the Shukhov Tower in Shabolovka, Moscow (patent No. 1896):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/15/radio-tower-campaign-russia-foster
http://www.shukhov.org/news.html?n=63&id=1#news_63

Sergei Arssenev  

Vice President of Shukhov Tower Foundation  

Fragment of the report "Lattice shells of V.G. Shukhov in the XXI century”
at the meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 
dedicated to the heritage of the academician Vladimir  Shukhov
http://sergei-arssenev.livejournal.com/797.html
This publication is available on the terms of license:
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Translation – Sergei Anisiphorov  

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