Relics of Wooden Architecture

The carpenters of the ancient Russian city of Novgorod were famed for their skill. Carpenters and builders, they erected peasant homes, fortress walls and towers, windmills, churches, chapels and even palaces. They built thousands of villages and a large number of towns mainly with axes. In old times practically all the buildings in Novgorod were made of timber.

Relics of the carpenters' skill – art of truly folk origin – have been preserved to our days.

To establish the artistic worth of old structures a close study is made of all that is left and of books and even legends passed on from generation to generation.

The rich finds led to the decision to collect and put in one place all the more valuable works by unknown architects of the Novgorod area.

Text 3. Industrialized building methods

Industrialized building means a high degree of prefabrication applied to domestic or other construction so as to reduce site work to a minimum. This involves careful planning, and a maximum of standardization.

The quantity of factory work on the building components is highly increased so as to reduce the cost and improve the quality and speed of construction.

Large-panel construction is one of industrialized building methods which was first applied in the USSR. It consists of using reinforced concrete panels one or two storeys high, sometimes made of light-weight insulating concrete.

For large-panel timber walls which have been prefabricated for many years both in Europe and America, the term is not used.

EXERCISES

I. Answer the following questions:

1. What is meant by «industrialized building»?

2. What does this method involve?

3. How can the cost of construction be reduced?

4. Where was large-panel construction applied first?

5. What does the method of large-panel construction consist of?

II. Read and translate the following word combinations into Russian:

industrialized building methods; high degree of prefabri­cation; maximum of standardization; to reduce site work; one or two storeys high; large-panel construction.

III. Translate the following sentences into Russian:

1. A maximum of standardization is needed to reduce site work to a minimum.

2. The up-to-date machinery is used on construction sites.

3. Large-panel construction was first applied in the USSR.

4. A high degree of prefabrication is important for housing construction.

5. Prefabricated rooms and flats can be assembled into houses.

Дата добавления: 2015-08-21