Life at High Altitude
Moscow actively builds high-rise buildings which, undoubtedly, will enrich a silhouette of the capital. Their clusters, which are easy seen from large highways will create reference points of the city.
High-rise building is of large technical value: constructive methods, sanitary-engineering devices, elevators, fire extinguishing means are improved; specifications and guidelines are developed, the advanced foreign experience is generalised, books devoted to a new kind of building are published. It should help our architectural and building practice to reach a new progressive level. However, is no essential link in this tireless activity: the person-user of these grandiose constructions is forgotten. Neither psychological, nor physical impact on people, long time staying in a high-rise is not explored; hygienists do not participate in estimation of new buildings as in «good old days».
Meanwhile their participation in estimation of buildings in the last century has allowed to make a lot of useful decisions. Let us look at some examples. Because of spread of infections’ danger, in particular children’s diseases, building of economic apartment houses with hall-planning has been limited and section-planning was preferred. Hygienic qualities of apartments in sections were much better, than in communal flats, because of apartments’ bilateral orientation that provided better insulation and ventilation of premises. In 10-16-storeyed houses doctors had negatively estimated the practice of elevator landing ventilation of buildings with stairways built in depth of the buildings’ body and having no lateral natural illumination.
The air in apartments of such houses worsened because of air flows from the not ventilated backstairs. As a result the construction of such building was stopped. Necessity of building widely known “antinoise” types of buildings with special planning was defined by requirements of hygienists for silence maintenance in the apartments turned to highways of capital. Physicians have made a conclusive contribution into standartization of natural illumination and planning of schools and medical-improving facilities in the typology of public buildings.
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Text by Vladimir Litzkevich, doctor of architecture, professor