VIII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF A HOUSE

Most of the time of a modern man is spent within the walls of some buildings. Houses are built for dwelling; large buildings are constructed for individual purposes; theatres, museums, public and scientific institutions are built for cultural activities of the people. The purposes of modern buildings differ widely, but all of them originate from the efforts of primitive men to protect themselves from stormy weather, wild animals and human enemies.

The people of the Old Stone Age had to find some warm and dry place to shelter from bad weather. They chose caves, dwelling places that storm and cold could not destroy. Later caves were imitated in stone structures, trees were taken as a model for huts built of branches. Primitive stone structures, huts and tents are the earliest types of human dwellings.

Man has always been a builder. The kind of house he built depended upon the climate and upon the building materials at hand. The most ancient homes on the territory of Rus were earthen houses. They consisted of a shallow hole of oval shape. The floor was covered with limestone slabs. The roof was conical and stood on poles covered by branches or animal skins.

The first houses in many parts of the world were made of wood. Men tied together the tops of several trees and covered them with the skins of animals or with leaves and grass. A hut was the first house of primitive people. In other regions the most convenient building material was stone. Men began building houses out of stone long ago.

The first kind of house in Britain was a simple one-room building of stone or wood, according to the materials the people could obtain. They were used about four thousand years ago. The people who lived in them were greatly in advance of the primitive men who used rock shelters. The walls of such houses were very thick, and the roof was made of whalebone rafters covered with skins, with a hole in the middle as a chimney. Those houses were plastered. A plastered house is warmer and looks nicer. There were no windows in such houses and the light came in through the hole in the roof. When it rained they covered the hole and opened the door.

The ancient houses of which anything is known are those of ancient Egypt. The Egyptians built very simple houses by present standards. They were built of bricks dried in the sun. Having dried the bricks², they put up four walls, and above these they placed a flat roof. The roof was flat because there was very little rain in Egypt. Some of them were built around a courtyard or garden with rooms opening into it. Their buildings were simple in construction but very beautiful. We still admire their monuments, pyramids, sphinxes and palaces. An important part in the history of building has been played by the column and ancient Egypt gave the world the lessons in the art of making columns. The Greeks learned much from Egypt. But they built a slanting roof because there was much rain in their country. They also improved on Egypt's column and soon became the teachers of the world in column making. In Rome bricks were used for building and houses were often finished with plaster over bricks on both inside and outside walls. The Romans, in turn, learned much from the Greeks. But they added the arch, thus adding much strength and beauty to their buildings.

A very advanced construction technique¹ today is the use of precast concrete. It has many advantages over other building materials. Precast building units can be assembled at the site, the main part of the work is done at the factory. The precast concrete technique plays a great role in building.

Notes: whalebone китовый ус передовая технология строительства

IX. FROM THE HISTORY OF HUMAN DWELLINGS

Architecture is the art and science of building. Nearly 2000 years ago the Roman architect Vitruvius listed 3 basic factors in architecture - convenience, strength and beauty. These three factors are always present and interrelated in the best structures.

In prehistoric times men looked for protection under the branches of trees. The people of the Old Stone Age had to find some warm and dry place to shelter from bad weather. They chose caves. When man began to build a home for himself, caves were imitated in stone structures, trees were taken as a model for huts built of branches. From these beginnings was developed the column and beam method of construction. For many centuries the column and beam was the only generally employed method of stone construction.

Most of the world's great architecture¹ is in stone, because until recently this was the material used in practically all the buildings. But to say that the history of architecture is embraced entirely in stone structures is not accurate, for this neglects² the remarkable work of the Romans in concrete and many structures of wood and brick throughout the world. It is of interest to note briefly the influence of materials upon the schools of architecture. Where clay abounded, as in Egypt, sun-dried bricks were easily and cheaply made. Stone was also obtainable, and because of its durability it became the material of the temples and palaces. Simple dwellings were built of brick.

In Mesopotamia the presence of excellent clay and the scarcity of stone and timber led in the very early days to the introduction of brick construction and in the absence of stone and wood to span their areas, the arch and dome came into being.³ Greece possessed perfect marble for columns and beams, and the arch and dome received little attention. A fortunate combination of lime, limestone, clay and pozzuolana gave Rome stone and cement, and the great part of structures is largely due to the union of stone, brick, strong mortar and concrete. During the Roman Empire round arches, vaults and domes were perfected in stone, brick and concrete; this development being made possible by the abundance in Italy of good limestone and pozzuolana, a volcanic material which when mixed with lime produced an excellent cement. The pointed arch was an inherent feature of the Gothic style. In Nothern Europe, Switzerland and Russia, where forests abounded and other materials were difficult to obtain, wooden architecture was characteristic for buildings of all types.

The climate of a country is one of the factors that influence the style of its architecture. It can be best illustrated by British residential buildings. The weather in England is often cloudy and there are few sunny days in the winter season. Therefore, as a rule, the windows in an English house are of a large size to catch as much light and sunshine as possible. Since there is much rain in England, typical British houses have high steep roofs where rain water and melting snow can easily flow down. Most of the houses have a fireplace which forms the most characteristic feature of an English home and is seldom seen in other European countries.

In our time the use of steel and reinforced concrete introduced new possibilities into construction. Great changes in building methods together with numerous mechanical inventions and the appearance of new materials such as concrete resulted in great buildings being erected during the following centuries. The structural scheme today is one of skeleton framework.

1. великая архитектура мира 2. пренебрегать (не принимать во внимание)

3. появились арка и купол

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