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Text 1. From the History of Construction in Ukraine

Early period. Construction is closely tied to the develop­ment of civilization and has a long history. The oldest remains of dwellings found in Ukraine date back to the late Paleolithic period. These remains of huts built about 15,000 years ago and consisting of large mammoth bones covered with hides were discovered in the village of Mizyn on the Desna in the Chernihiv region. In Neolithic times huts were dug deeply into the ground and were covered with a peaked roof of hides or bark. At the time of the TrypiIian culture at beginning of the 3rd rnillenium bc settlements were built on hills or on riverbanks, mostly in Right-Bank Ukraine. The houses were rectangular and quite large (about 120 sq. m.) and were constructed of wood covered with a thick layer of clay.

In southern Ukraine defensive walls were built of stone or clay. Wooden structures were known too, remnants of which were found near the village of Mykhailivka in Kherson oblast.

In the Bronze and Iron ages and the Scythian period high earthworks and barrows, fortified settlements, and open farm settlements with dwellings made of branches and clay (middle Dnieper region, 5th century bc) were constructed.

Beginning in the 7th century bc high stone walls, residential buildings, and temples were built in the ancient states on the northern coast of the Black Sea such as Chersonese Taurica, Tyras, Olbia, and Panticapeum. The building techniques of the ancient Greeks and then of the Romans and Byzantines later influenced construc­tion in Ukrainian territories.

From the first half of the medieval period until the 10th century fortresses and fortified settlements were built of wood on elevated ground and were encircled with earthen walls and moats. Two story dwellings in which the lower story was used for storage were built in a circle and formed part of the fortifications. The settlements beyond the walls were inhabited by peasants, who lived in clay huts, and later by crafts people and merchants.

Princely period. Beginning in the second half of the 10th century stone construction developed in Kievan Rus' under the influence of Byzantine building techniques. "Churches, princely palaces, and boyars' villas were built of brick interlayed with cut stone. The arch was extensively applied. In Kievan Rus', construction reached its peak of development in the 11th-12th century, when the following were built: the Transfiguration Cathedral in Chernihiv (1036); in Kiev, the St Sophia Cathedral (1037), Dormition Cathedral of the Kievan Cave Monastery (1073-78), St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery (1108), and the Transfiguration church in the Berestiv district (1113-25); and the Good Friday Church in Chernihiv (end of the 12th century). In contrast to these architectural monuments, the houses of artisans, burghers, and peasants remained primitive; they were built of wood in the forest regions and of clay in the steppe regions.

The typical city in the Princely era (Kyiv, Chernihiv, Lviv, Kamianets-Podilskyi, etc) developed on a radial plan around a nucleus consisting of a fortified citadel.

13th-16th century. In the 13th century the Mongols devastated cities and villages in Ukraine, which, given the political and economic decline of the 14th-15th century, could not be rebuilt immediately. In the 13th- 16th century castle building developed rapidly: in Western Ukraine stone castles appeared in Lutsk, Kremianets, Khotyn, Kamianets-Podilskyi, and other cities. In the 15th century a fortress was built in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, and a number of fortified monasteries (Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Mezhyrichia) and churches were constructed. In Lviv, where a builders' guild was formed, the Korniakt building (1571-80), the Dormition Church (1547-59), and other buildings were constructed,

17th-20th century. In the first half of the 17th century castles and fortresses (Kodak, Bar, Brody, Kremenchuk) continued to be built in Right-Bank Ukraine. The French engineer G. de Beauplan distinguished himself in this field. In the mid-17th century the construction trades flourished in Left-Bank Ukraine: in Chernihiv, Lyzohub's villa and the refectory of the Holy Trinity Monastery were built; in Novhorod-Siverskyi, a collegium; in Kharkiv, the Cathedral of the Holy Protectress; and in Kyiv, the refectory of Vydubychi Monastery, the All Saints' Church above the Economic Gate of the Kievan Cave Monastery, and St Nicholas's Cathedral.

The vigorous urban construction in the 17th and at the beginning of the 18th century in Ukraine utilized Western architectural styles, such as the Renaissance style (the building of the Kievan Academy, 1703-40) and the baroque style (the metropolitan's residence in Kyiv). The Ukrainian baroque became the dominant style in this period and was used in many prominent buildings such as churches, monasteries, belfries, military chanceries, and officers' villas. The residences of Cossack officers and the clergy were spacious, built of wood or brick, and decorated with galleries and carved doors, window frames, and ceilings.

 

Text 2. Housing in Britain

Blocks of flats have offered greater scope for bold conceptions and architectural use of modern materials and methods than terraced, semi-detached or detached houses. In the new towns architects designing houses have had opportunity for variety of design within a general plan, and the same is true of larger local authority building schemes.

As the main demand has been for urban housing, de­velopment of ideas in planning and design since 1946 has been most noticeable in housing schemes.

Quality of design has been high in the new towns. Much thought was given to individual house design, to layout and grouping of houses, to landscaping and to community amenities or the relationship of houses to shopping centres, schools and other public buildings.

In large older towns much more thought than formerly has been given in recent building to such questions as orientation for sunlight, space between high blocks to allow daylight to reach the lowest floors, and to balanced mixing of tall, medium-height and low dwellings, of housing and public building of private and public open space. The uniformity and monotony of a good deal of earlier building is now avoided. The trend towards concentration of siting has been made possible by the growth of the realisation that good urban surroundings make a town a better dwelling place than a sprawling dormitory suburb, that urban and rural living each have their own pleasures.

Much attention has been paid in the last five years to the details of town development, such as outbuildings, street furniture (lamps, traffic signs, kiosks, etc.), shop frontages, pedestrians facilities and noise abatement.

Building materials. The vast majority of houses built are of the brick and timber construction traditional in Great Britain, and stone has been used in certain districts, where it is at hand. Rendering, timber-boarding and tile hanging are also used. Roofs are normally of clay or concrete tiles, but roofing slate is used in certain districts, and some low-pitched roofs are covered with heavy-duty roofing felt. The trend towards the use of prefabrication is growing especially as regards the factory production of joinery, interior fittings, etc. more concrete is being used (for houses as well as blocks of flats) and productivity of hand labour on site is being increased by the use of power tools (e.g. power-driven barrows, pneumatic hammers, laminates, articulated conveyors.) New or substitute mate­rials, such as plastic, laminates and glass fibre, are also finding a useful outlet in building construction.

The principal materials used in the construction of dwellings however, remain timber, bricks, roofing tiles, cement, sand and gravel, and, principally in the construc­tion of flats, steel and reinforced concrete.

Non-traditional building. The difference between tradi­tional and non-traditional building is more in the methods employed in making and erecting the component parts than in the actual materials used.

Traditional methods are based on the principle of an on-site operation where all the materials traditionally required for the building are first gathered together, such as bricks, cement, sand, ballast, timber, tiles, plaster, etc. They are then fashioned as required and put together with a labour force working on the open site. Non-traditio­nal building may use new or the same basic traditional materials in new ways, employing new techniques in fixing and erection which differ, for instance, from the traditional method of laying by hand on brick, or concrete block, on top of another. In the main, new methods have been applied to alternative systems of walling, employing concrete posts and infilling panels; thin concrete slabs supported on light structural steel framing; pre-assembled panels of brickwork; stressed-skin resin-bonded plywood panels, asbestos sheeting in varoius forms; curtain walling and the line. These are usually produced in a factory and transported to the site, requiring only to be placed and secured in position.

Although traditional methods will die hard the influen­ce of new techniques are gradually making headway in present-day building practice especially in multi-storey buildings of all kinds and more particularly in school construction.