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For several years, young architects V. Bandakov, V. Sokolov and A. Dekhtyar have been teaching the architecture section at the Gorky City People's University of Arts. When they, yesterday's graduates of the university, came to the university, they met an audience of schoolchildren and students of technical schools. The guys turned out to be disciplined and diligent, many of them draw well. They listen with pleasure to stories about architectural monuments, about modern urban planning. But “this seems to be not enough for teachers - after all, perhaps their young students will not only have to build, but also design new cities. And the city of the future is unthinkable without a dream. Teaching children to dream is, perhaps, not an easy task … Let everything happen “in a certain kingdom, in a certain state,” “in a wonderland,” in a world of fantasy. But behind all this, no, no, and the thought flashes:“And the idea is not so hopeless. Sometime in the thirtieth century …"
Today we would like to tell you about one such project of the future, which was born in the classroom of the Gorky University of Arts.
It was a regular workshop. They talked about how to make human life more convenient, without stepping on nature, without destroying forests, without polluting rivers. In short, it was about ecology. Some suggested building houses deep in the ground - below the root system of trees, while others, in order to save land, proposed cities on high piles - heavenly colonies … The tenth-grader Diana Shirokova took the floor.
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- I want my apartment to be submerged. At least one wall. Firstly, from the window you can see fish swimming in front of the house. And secondly, - she slyly looked around the audience, - you won't have to … water it!
Everyone, even the leader Alexander Dekhtyar, looked at the girl with bewilderment.
- The house must be alive. With roots, with a crown … It will not need to be built, it can be grown.
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- Wow! Well, I came up with it - Baron Munchausen will envy! someone shouted.
- This is not serious! The dream must be scientific …
There was a noise in the room, Alexander barely managed to calm the guys down.
“Let Diana tell everything in order,” he said. - What will your house be made of?
- From living tissue. This can be algae, spores, or a sponge. In short, some kind of biomass. Such a house will not need to be heated - after all, all living things give off heat. If we take the plant mass as a basis, the house itself will produce oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide … Of course, all these processes need to be controlled - this will require electronic equipment. You lay down the program, the cells begin to develop in the right direction. One, then another room will grow … Again, say, an empty fantasy? Do you know anything about genetic engineering?
Andrey Lisitsyn was the first to respond.
- We know. This science is very young, but it already knows something. By acting on the genetic code, it can be used to grow an organism with predetermined properties. I read that in Tashkent, geneticists are breeding a silkworm, which will spin a thread stronger than nylon. Of course, a living house is a more difficult task. But maybe someday in the thirtieth century …
Diana's speech dramatically changed the course of the seminar. The thirtieth century came into its own.
Everyone tried to develop a new idea.
“Let this house bloom,” some suggested. - You cut the hard layer of the house from the outside, put in a seed. In spring, the walls and roof turn into a colorful meadow.
- Why are there flowers! You can get the fruits. Let the house bear the harvest, others suggested.
The guys borrowed some thoughts from science fiction. Many people know about the idea of a spaceship with edible inner walls. But what if you make these at home? Not from the inside, but from the outside.
- One wall is like a young potato, the other tastes like an apple!
Not without skeptics, of course.
- Will the house like it? If he is alive, it means that he can be ill, even angry …
But the idea has already taken root, and the forecasts turned out to be optimistic.
- Do not get angry. An apple tree is not angry when apples are removed from it …
Probably, this day would have been remembered by the guys as one of the lessons of fantasy, if a letter had not come from Moscow in the spring. It said that scientists from the University of Stuttgart (Germany) announced an international competition "Architecture and Nature". They want Soviet guys to take part in the competition.
They thought for a long time what to send to the competition. And then they remembered about this seminar. We decided to develop a project for a living house in detail, give drawings and a description to it.
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According to this scheme, a living house will interact with the environment.
And that's what they got in the end.
It must be a plant organism of considerable size with internal cavities. This organism should be able to grow together with others, similar to itself, forming whole cities-bioformations. The connection of such a house with the environment is carried out using the root system. For its life, our house uses, like other plants, water, salts dissolved in it, air, sun energy, and is also a waste processor. In doing so, it produces oxygen and clean water. The core of the walls of our house can even serve as food for animals and people.
Operational change of the shape of the house can be carried out with the help of directional irradiation of areas of the house with ultraviolet or some other rays. With the help of such an impact, it will be possible to grow furniture, remodel premises to your liking, and complete new premises.
Another work was sent to the competition in Stuttgart, a poster reminder of how nature can deal with a person if he continues to disregard its laws. The authors of the poster, ninth-grader Andrei Lisitsyn and fourth-grader Lada Asanova, took a meter-long photograph of a modern house and painted loaches making their way through its windows, balconies of hanging vines stuck to the walls, trees sprouting through the roof … That is, a kind of illustration for one of Valery Bryusov's poems turned out. He has these lines:
Build huge buildings, Raise towers over the towers …
And the poem ends with the words:
The will of nature will wake up Terribly will rise up against the daring …
Of course, this is just an artistic image. Nature does not rebel. Sometimes she just silently leaves, leaving a lifeless space. Therefore, a person must understand her language, understand her signs, know how to cure a tree, clean a pond..
How do the guys imagine a world where only living machines work.
By sending their works to the competition, the guys did not expect too much of the first places. It was much more important to have their say on a topic that has long worried them. Therefore, the holiday that the letter from Stuttgart brought with it was unexpected. And in the letter it was reported that three residents of Gorky - Diana Shirokova, Andrey Lisitsyn and Lada Asanova - were awarded the University of Stuttgart prizes, first and second degree diplomas.
S. NIKOLAEV
Drawings by V. BANDAKOV and A. DEKHTYAR
Young technician. Number 5 1980
