Networks of Construction: Vladimir Schuchov

For the sheer quantity and quality of his inventions, scientist and structural engineer Vladimir Shukhov (1853-1939) is sometimes referred to as the Russian Thomas Edison. Among his pioneering contributions are a number of innovations related to the oil industry, including the design and construction of the first Russian pipeline and the world’s first industrial plant for oil cracking. His groundbreaking structural works include the cable-supported hanging roof and the hyperboloid lattice tower epitomized by the Shukhov Tower in Moscow, which bears his name. Networks of Construction collects Shukhov’s trailblazing achievements from the turn of the twentieth century, exploring his career and complicated creative process. Each of Shukhov’s projects, the book shows, was realized through an elaborate process beginning with an intense period of planning to account for the interconnections among a wide range of factors, from the technical background of the construction workers to technology transfer, the nomenclature of steel grades, and the scientification of construction knowledge. Ekaterina Nozhova and Uta Hassler of the Institute of Historic Building Research and Conservation at ETH Zurich have painstakingly reconstructed Shukhov’s process through a wealth of drawings, photographs, and documents.