Bookvica

[LIGHTING IN ARCHITECTURE] Svet v arkhitekture [i.e. Lighting in Architecture]

Gusev, N.M.

Item #295

Moscow; Leningrad: ONTI, 1937. 211 pp.: ill. 25,5x17,5 cm. In publisher’s cloth with silver lettering on the front board and spine (by M.A. Il’in). General wear and toning, otherwise a very good copy.

One of 5000 copies. Rare. First book about light in architecture in Russian.
The material of the book is mainly the result of the research work done by the author (Nikolai Mikhailovich Gusev, professor, doctor of technical sciences, member of The International Commission on Illumination), together with the data of foreign and Soviet specialists.
The author states in the book that there is almost nothing regarding technical literature on the question of lighting at that moment.
Bibliography lists 28 titles, and only few of them are Russian original titles and all are from the first half of the 1930s.

The most precious part of this book is a large amount of schemes, drawings, plans, photographs, including photos of buildings in Germany, USA as well as examples of natural and artificial lighting in USSR (e.g., underground stations, parachute tower in Moscow which was destroyed during the war).
Next textbook about architectural lighting design came out only in 1973 written by Gusev and his former student V.G. Makarevich (there was another Gusev’s book in 1949 titled “Architectural Lighting Engineering”).
The edition includes information for students for designing the utilitarian side of lighting, depending on climatic conditions, technological features of the building and hygiene requirements; the results of research work at enterprises, allowing the reader to correctly evaluate certain methods of solving light lines. The second part of the book is also technical but consists of information on how buildings were lit in the past, how museums and galleries are lit, how industrial buildings are lit and why etc.

Sold