Exercise 4. Read and translate the text.

UNIT 1

INTELLIGENT HOUSES

structure and spatial organization software equipment electrical systems technological innovation

Exercise 1. Complete the paragraph with a word or phrase from the box.

The focus of construction has shifted, over the centuries, as the waves of (1)... have taken place. In the preindustrial era buildings consisted of supporting skeletons and enclosing skins; design was mostly a matter of (2).... With the Industrial Revolution, buildings acquired mechanical and (3).... Architects started to deal with selecting specialized (4)... and with configuring machine-powered systems to support specific activities. The early modernist architect Le Corbusier summarized this new condition by describing a house as a “machine for living in.”. Now 21st century buildings are acquiring artificial nervous systems. Electronics and (5)... are becoming important elements of modern houses. And we can now think of rooms as “robots for interacting with.”

Exercise 2. Fill in the blanks with the words from the text above.

S________ S___________ E________ S_________

M_______-p_______ S________ L_ C____________

Text A

Exercise 3. Match the words with their meanings.

space	цель
shelter	разделенный
iron roof	трубы и провода
to provide protection	пространство
to supply insulation	раковина
thermal mass	обеспечивать защиту
to reradiate	ливневый резервуар
fireplace	убежище, крыша над головой
to vary the flow of air	сантехник
subdivided	излучать поглощенное тепло
purpose	прибор
portable furniture	спрос
water basin	изменять поток воздуха
lavatory	обеспечивать изоляцию
pipes and wires	камин
device	переносная мебель
demand	железная крыша
plumber	туалет
rainwater tank	теплоёмкость

Exercise 4. Read and translate the text.

PREINDUSTRIAL INTERIORS: STRUCTURE AND SPACE

A typical preindustrial building, the elementary house of an agricultural worker, is shown in its ruined state in Figure 1. It consists of a single rectangular space with doors at either end and windows on opposite sides. Its basic function was simply shelter. The stone walls and the iron roof provided protection from the wind and the rain, and relief from the heat of the sun. The walls minimized extremes of heat and cold by supplying insulation, and through their thermal mass, they would heat up in the warmth of the day, then reradiate thermal energy to the interior in the cool evenings. When these passive strategies did not help, a fireplace produced additional heat. The door and window openings provided connection to the exterior. They could be opened and closed manually to vary the flow of air. And, through filtering mechanisms such as shuttersand blinds, they provided the ways to control interior light, view, and gave protection from bugs and dust.

The interior was not subdivided, like in a modern home, into specialized rooms. Instead, the space was adapted for different purposes at different times. Very simple, mostly portable furniture was used. There was a bed for sleeping, a table and chairs for eating and reading, and a water basin for washing. The fireplace served as an elementary cooking device. And a lavatory was outdoors.

There were no pipes and wires in the walls and under the floor, no mechanical or electrical devices, no demands for the services of plumbers and electricians. Water was supplied from a rainwater tank fed by runoff from the roof. Firewood was cut from the surrounding trees and hand-carried to the fireplace. There was an evaporative cooler hanging in the branches of a nearby tree.

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