28.08.2011

On August 28 Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov, the Great engineer, architect and scientist was 158. Gridshells and hyperboloid towers created and patented by Shukhov in 1896 are used in XXI century all over the world.

 

During 8 years of its activity the “Shukhov Tower” Foundation has done a great deal of work on the preservation and propaganda of the academician Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov’s heritage. In October 2003 the Foundation’s initiative group obtained the adopting by the State Duma of Russian Federation of a special decision (No. 4415-III, 2003) on the heritage of V.G. Shukhov which indicates that “it is especially important to preserve the constructions built according to V.G. Shukhov’s projects in Moscow and other cities of Russia and to undertake necessary measures for that”. For the purpose of advocating the preservation of V.G. Shukhov’s heritage, the Foundation regularly arranges publications in mass media, organizes its own projects and takes part in various public arrangements.

Vladimir Fyodorovich Shukhov, the Foundation’s president, great grandson of the Great engineer leads the Foundation and personally keeps contacts with the administrative and business structures in respect of restoration of the Shukhov tower in Shabolovka, Moscow and the creation on the adjacent territory of a tourist infrastructure, including the “Shukhov center of science, culture and art”. Lately, this activity of the Foundation has led to the adoption of the number of administrative decisions that bring the restoration of the V.G.Shukhov tower in Shabolovka nearer.

From 1878 till 1939, on the territory of Russian Empire and the USSR according to V.G. Shukhov’s projects there were built more than 10 thousand different constructions and big engineering systems. Out of that enormous number only a bit more than 30 constructions have survived in Russia till our days, two thirds of which are the monuments of architecture and are protected by law. The most known are the Shukhov’s overhead covers in GUM (Upper trade rows), in A.S. Pushkin GMII (Museum of fine arts) and the V.G. Shukhov’s TV tower in Shabolovka that are located in Moscow. Some unique, recognized and studied abroad Shukhov’s constructions, despite the protection by law have been destroyed as a result of incompetent decisions and plundered for scrap: the round pavilion-rotunda with hanging lattice steel cover in Essentuki, one of two 128-meter lattice steel towers-supports of the NIGRES power transmission line passage over the Oka River near Nizhniy Novgorod, several hyperboloid water towers.

The Foundation expresses hope that thanks to the efforts of the public, the assistance of the power and business structures it will be possible to preserve the existing constructions of V.G. Shukhov that confirm Russia’s priority in the development and the use in construction of Gridshells (lattice shell-covers), which are used in XXI century by such world-known architects as Lord Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Renzo Piano, Nicholas Grimshaw, Richard Rogers and Paul Andreu.