Ancient Wonders of the World

The Great Pyramid is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that still stands. It was built by order of the Pharaoh Cheops, who once ruled Egypt. More than 100,000 slaves had been laboring for twenty years to build it. They had no machines, not even carts – all the work was done by human strength alone. Yet each huge block was so well laid that the Pyramid has stood for 5,000 years.

Near the Great Pyramid in Egypt there is a huge sculptured rock called the Sphynx. The face is that of a man, perhaps the Pharaoh Khafre who built it almost 5,000 years ago. But the body is that of a lion, and between its great stone paws there is a small temple.

In Babylon, one of the great cities of the Ancient World, there was a famous garden which amazed visitors for hundreds of years. It was called the Hanging Gardens, because it was built along arches and towers and looked like a wall of flowers and green shrubs. The garden was kept alive by a hidden pool on a highest terrace, from which the water was drawn to appear in a series of fountains. The gardens were built by King Nebuchodnozzor, who is mentioned in the Bible as a cruel conqueror of Jerusalem.

The greatest god of the ancient Greeks was Zeus, for whom the Roman name was Jupiter. The greatest statue of Zeus was at Olympia, where the famous Olympic Games were held in its honor. The statue was 40 feet high – about seven times a man’s height – and was made of marble, decorated with pure gold and ivory. After 1,000 years, an earthquake tumbled it down.

The Temple of Artemis is one of the most famous temples of the ancient world. It stood for 600 years in Ephesus, a great city of Syria. The temple was sacred to Artemis, also called Diana, goddess of the moon. The finest sculptors and painters of Greece decorated this beautiful building, which was destroyed by barbaric Goths. Only a few pieces of statues columns remained. They were dug up by modern scientists.

Few remember the tiny kingdom of Caria, which once flourished in what is now southwestern Turkey. But the name of its king, Mausolus, is known because of the word “mausoleum” – a massive tomb. The original Mausoleum, built in memory of this king by his widow, Queen Artemisia, was so magnificent that it was one of the Wonders of the Ancient World.

Rhodes, an inland near Greece, was one of the richest and busiest towns of the ancient world. Standing across the entrance to its big harbor, was a huge statue of the sun god Helios, famous as the Colossus of Rhodes. Although ships sailed beneath these giant feet, the Colossus was not as large as the American Statue of Liberty.

The Lighthouse of Alexandria, sometimes called the Pharos of Alexandria was a tower built by the Ptolemaic Kingdom between 280 and 247 BC which was between 393 and 450 ft (120 and 137 m) tall. It was one of the tallest man-made structures in the world for many centuries, and was regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Pharos was a small island just off the coast of the Nile Delta's western edge. In 332 BC when Alexander the Great founded the city of Alexandria on an isthmus opposite to Pharos, he caused the island to be united to the coast by a mole more than three-quarters of a mile long (1260 m/4,100+ feet) called the Heptastadion

The Moscow Kremlin

The Moscow Kremlin is the chief architectural ensemble of the capital. It has few rivals in the number of unique masterpieces of architecture and other art concentrated within its walls.

The might of these walls, its ridge-roofed towers and the three-dimensional expressiveness of the buildings clustered on its grounds offer panoramas of rare beauty. The triangle of the Kremlin walls, repeating the outline of Borovitsky Hill, encloses an area of 27.5 hectares. The maximum height of the hill above the level of the Moskva river is about 25 meters.

The ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin is the result of the efforts of many generations. Signs of a Slavic settlement here date to no later than the end of the 11^th century. At the time the fortress on the top of Borovitsky Hill covered an area of about 5 hectares. The first Moscow fortifications consisted of a moat, a rampart and a palisade. The city built here on the orders of Prince Yuri Dolgoruky in the 12^th century was 5 to 6 times as large as the initial area.

By the end of the 15^th century the unification of the Russian feudal principalities was completed and a United Russian State had been formed. Ivan the III the grand prince of all Russia launched reconstruction of the Kremlin on the large scale, having invited a number of master builders from Italy for the purpose. So the Italian architect and military engineer Aristotel Fioravanti arrived in Moscow to work there for many years.

The new Cathedral of the Dormition (1475-1479) was the first to be built. In 1484-1489 the festive Cathedral of Annuciation was erected next to it. They were joined by the Cathedral of the Archangel in 1505-1508.

For a whole decade starting from 1485 old walls and towers were replaced with new ones. It was then that the Kremlin acquired its present-day outlines.

The fortress walls forming an irregular triangle are of 2.235 m long, from 3.5to 6.5m thick and from 5 to 19 m high. Atop the walls stand 1,045 bifurcated merlons from 2 to 2.5 m long in height and fitted with narrow embrasures.

Along the east a moat 12 m deep and 32 m high surrounded kremlin walls.

On its northwest side Borovitsky Hill was protected by the Neglinnaya river and on its south side by the Moskva river.

The Kremlin was a superb example of the fortification art of the period.

Air-Conditioning

Air-conditioning is the bringing of air in a building to a desired temperature, purity and humidity throughout the year to maintain healthy and comfortable atmosphere.

Air-conditioning may be divided into two main sections: one for the processing of materials in industry; the other for human comfort. It has been found that there is an optimum condition of temperature and humidity at which the processing of different materials may be carried out with the minimum of wastage and the maximum of goods of specification quality. The system is therefore designed to produce air of predetermined temperature and moisture content and to keep it so despite all external influences. Such air is filtered free of foreign material.

Conditioning air for human comfort mat also be divided into two main sections – winter and summer. Frequently, the systems installed in office buildings provide control during both seasons. Complete air-conditioning provides the following services.

First, filtration of the air both in winter and summer to remove dust.

Second, calculation of the air at low velocity and with proper diffusion to prevent draughts and maintain a uniform temperature and humidity at all parts of the inhabited space.

Third, introduction of enough fresh air from the outside atmosphere.

Fourth, heating of the air in winter.

Fifth, cooling of the air in summer below the outside atmosphere.

Sixth, humidifying the air in winter to a relative humidity of at least 20-25 per cent.

Seventh, dehumidifying the air in summer to a relative humidity not exceeding 55 per cent.

 

Modern Building Materials

Concrete is perhaps the most widely spread building material used nowadays. Concrete is an artificial stone, made by thoroughly mixing such natural ingredients or aggregates as cement, sand and gravel or broken stone together with sufficient water to produce a mixture of the proper consistency. It has many valuable properties. It sets under water, can be poured into moulds so as to get almost any desirable form, and together with steel in reinforced concrete it has very high strength, and also resist fire. Prestressed concrete is most widely used at present while prefabricated blocks are employed on vast scale for skeleton structures.

Aggregate for concrete

By the simple definition from the dictionary “aggregates are the materials, such as sand and small stones, that are mixed with cement to form concrete.

Aggregates have three principle functions in the concrete: they provide a relatively cheap filler for the concreting material, or binder, they provide a mass of particles which are suitable for resisting the action of applied loads, of abrasion, of percolation of moisture through the mass, and of climate factors, they reduce volume changes resulting from the action of the setting and hardening of the concrete mass.

All aggregates, both natural and artificial, which nave sufficient strength and resistance to weathering, and which do not contain harmful impurities may be used for making concrete.

As aggregates such natural materials as sand, pebbles, broken stone, broken brick, gravel, slag, cinder, pumice and others can be used.

Prestressed concrete

Prestressed concrete is not a new material. Its successful use has been developed rapidly during the last two decades, chiefly because steel of a more suitable character has been produced. Concrete is strong in compression but weak when used for tensile stresses.

If, therefore, we consider a beam made of plain concrete, and spanning a certain distance, it will at once be realized that the beam’s own weight will cause the beam to ‘sag’ or bend. This sagging at once puts the lower edge of the beam in tension, and if the cross-sectional are is small, causes it to break, especially if the span is relatively large.

If, on the other hand, we use the similar cross-section, but incorporate steel bars in the lower portion, the steel will resist the tensile stress derived from the sagof the beam, and thus assist in preventing it from breaking.

Key vocabulary

Bend – v сгибаться; гнуться; изгибаться

Crack – n 1.треск 2.трещина

Desire- желание; просьба, требование

Gravel - гравий

Load – n груз; нагрузка

Sag – v оседать; падать

Store – n запас; склад

Tensile – растяжимый

 

What is Meant by “Bioclimatic Architecture”

Bioclimatic architecture is a way of designing buildings and manipulating the environment within buildings by working with natural forces around the building rather than against them. Thus it concerns itself with climate as a major contextual generator, and with benign environments using minimal energy as its target. Bioclimatic architecture aims to protect and enhance the environment and life. It is developing on many different levels from rethinking basic concepts about our need for shelter and the function of the “city” in our lives to developing recycled or sustainable building materials.

The impact of traditional building on the environment and natural resources is enormous. However, the ideal of designing and building structures that are environmentally friendly has become fairly widespread throughout the community of architects and builders in developed nations. In many areas there is the necessity of complying with new regulations and standards aimed at protecting the environment. In addition, there are an increasing number of incentives for putting up buildings with more efficient energy consumption and that reduces the negative impacts on natural resources by using recycled or sustainable materials. While these vary around the world, there is awareness that our need for shelter must not jeopardize the environment.

There is growing interest in “green” building practice, which offer an opportunity to create environmentally sound and resource-efficient buildings by using an integrated approach to design. “Green” buildings promote resource conservation through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water conservation features. They take into consideration the environmental impact of the building and minimize waste. Other goals are to create a healthy and comfortable, reduce operation and maintenance costs, and address issues such as historical preservation, access to public transportation and other community infrastructure systems. The entire life cycle of the building and its components is considered, as well as the economic and environmental impact and performance.

Key vocabulary

Benign – adj. благотворный

Comply – v исполнять (просьбу, приказ)

Conviction – nубеждение, убежденность

Enhance – vусиливать, повышать

Have an impact – vоказывать влияние/воздействие

Incentive – n побуждение, стимул

Jeopardize – v угрожать, подвергать опасности

 

 

Green Building

Green architecture, or green design, is an approach to building that minimizes harmful effects on human health and the environment. The "green" architect or designer attempts to safeguard air, water, and earth by choosing eco-friendly building materials and construction practices.

Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) is a process that is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. This requires close cooperation of the design team, the architects, the engineers, and the client at all project stages.

Although new technologies are constantly being developed to complement current practices in creating greener structures, the common objective is that green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment by:

§ Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources

§ Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity

§ Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation.