| Abstrakt: |
In the 19th century, European cities faced water supply problems caused by industrialisation and urbanisation; in most cities, including Riga, much attention was paid to the issue in the late 19th - early 20th century when the majority of water towers were constructed. Water towers represent a typical 19th century phenomenon - quite short-lived in the history of architecture but notable for their manifold architectonic and stylistic solutions. Riga's municipality supplied the city inhabitants with clean potable water before the First World War, constructing two ground-water lines from Bukulti and four water towers in total: two in the Moscow Suburb in the late 19th century (1897-1899) and two early 20th century water towers - in Āgenskalns (1909-1910) and in Čiekurkalns (1912-1913). Both towers in Āgenskalns and Čiekurkalns functioned throughout the 20th century and are still standing today. The water tower as an engineered construction. The Intze Principle. As late as the mid-19th century, only polyhedral or cylindrical water tanks were commonplace. In the last quarter of the 19th century, engineering professor Otto Intze (1843-1904) from Aachen Technical University devised a new type of water tank: cylinders with either concave (Intze Type I) or convex (Intze Type II) bases with the ring anchor narrowed in relation to the outer diameter, thereby achieving lower construction costs, larger storage capacity and more stable construction. Intze not only created an economical and rational construction but also an elegant formal solution. The new design soon became recognised and widespread. The tanks of all four of Riga's late 19th - early 20th century water towers were built according to Intze Type II; in addition, Intze himself designed the water tower for the Moscow Suburb. There is no information regarding whether he visited Riga in connection with these projects, but in his youth he worked for the Riga-Dünaburg Railway Company (1860-1862) and also taught physics at a boys' school in Riga. When he had acquired some experience here, Intze studied construction engineering at the Technical University of Hanover from which he graduated in 1866 intending to return to work at the Riga-Dünaburg Railway Company but the Austro-Prussian War disrupted his plans. By the time Intze had designed Riga's water towers in the late 19th century, he was a recognised specialist in both creative and pedagogical fields. The water tower as an example of architectural style. As the water tower was a relatively new type of building, there were no architectural standards and this lack of precedent was compensated for by drawing parallels with the surrounding buildings or other historical types of constructions, according to Historicist practice. Also in the late 19th century water tower façades most often conformed to Historicist styles but the rational spatial structure - the highly raised water tank - did feature more prominently in the building's outer appearance. These tendencies, topical in late 19th century Europe are perfectly embodied in the Moscow Suburb water towers designed by Intze and built according to a single design - both have identical volume, façade solution systems and spatial layouts. The initial colour has not survived, but an early 20th century photograph demonstrates that each tower's supporting wall had been painted differently, in reversed tonal relationships of a "positive" against "negative". Such an juxtaposition makes one think of the water towers as two chess figures - the white rook and the black rook. Chess requires a bright mind and clever strategy, and this could be a message related to Riga's late 19th - early 20th century government that the city municipality intended to convey to both contemporaries and future generations. During the Art Nouveau period, water towers acquired new architectonic solutions and more abstract forms; new constructive and artistic means became widespread, such as the simplifying, rounding and softening of forms, introduction of new materials and constructions, and demonstration of these on façades. These forms reflected the building's functional, constructive framework that was aestheticised as well: protruding pillars emphasised the verticality of towers and the shaft was clearly distinguished from the raised tank, using composition, different materials and colours. These topical tendencies of early 20th century Europe are best seen in Riga's Āgenskalns and Čiekurkalns water towers (designed by Wilhelm Bockslaff, 1858-1945). Both of these towers' shafts are built of dark red clinkers and the plinth component is covered with rough blocks of grey travertine. The use of such materials, their textures and tonal relationships have associative links with Riga's fortification towers, such as the Powder Tower; like the other historical towers, it was built of red brick on a grey dolomite base. It is known that Bockslaff was deeply interested in Riga's architectural history; in addition, this method of appropriating façade solutions from local medieval architectural sources, especially from monumental fortifications, was typical of National Romanticism. Furthermore, the entrance portals of both towers are built of rough grey travertine and have an archaic, heavy, angular look, typical of National Romanticism. All four of Riga's water towers display the emblem of the city, but in these early 20th century buildings the emblems were reinterpreted and organically included in the façade design. In Čiekurkalns, the portal shows an associative link with the attributes seen in the city emblem: truncated pylons with centred and deepened vertical bands flanking the entrance replicate the towers on the emblem but the doorway resembles a city gate and the semi-circular opening over the entrance reminds us of the imperial crown. These features allow us to assume that the Riga municipality used the water tower portal as a symbolic reminder of the Riga city gate and access to communal services when Čiekurkalns was still not part of Riga at the turn of the 20th century. In addition, the practice of embodying egalitarian ideas and ideals in buildings that provided modern urban services to all was common in many countries within the National Romanticism movement. Although the architecture of the Āgenskalns and Čiekurkalns water towers is tied to the past, it is also modern regarding the use of constructions, formal language and the layout solution: the casing of the water tank consists of a metal framework and walls of sawdust bricks that were later plastered and painted. The construction of the metal framework is accentuated on the façade, using a colour that differs from the tank walls. On the Āgenskalns water tower, the framework is darker than the lighter walls, thus the regular, vertical and horizontal divisions remind us of the wooden half-timbered constructions that became especially popular in Germany within the Swiss chalet style of the late 19th - early 20th century and evident in Riga's architecture too. During the 20th century, the façade colouring system was disrupted, so today we cannot assess these objects as high-quality stylistic examples to the maximum extent. Conclusions. Riga's water tower architecture in the late 19th - early 20th century is monumental in nature and embodies the true values of the epoch. The towers are built from superior sustainable materials and their initial façade solutions are excellent examples from a stylistic viewpoint, thus Riga's water tower architecture can be called respectable. Late 19th century water towers with their rich Neo-Renaissance flourishes were likely to embody the idea of urban social prestige, communicating the Riga municipality's strategic organisational activities. Unlike the water towers in Moscow Suburb whose main task was to supply water to the city's central districts, the Āgenskalns and Čiekurkalns towers were built in more distant outskirts with the aim of providing modern urban services to wider social circles. Accordingly, the water tower architecture emerging after the revolutionary events of 1905 and combining the traits of National Romanticism, Swiss chalet style and late Art Nouveau, reflected more topical egalitarian ideas and ideals. Late 19th and early 20th century water tower architecture in Riga is well inscribed in the European context, including engineering as well as stylistic solutions and the use of materials and constructions. It reflects a general paradigm shift when typical late 19th century retrospection was gradually replaced with the style of the new epoch in the early 20th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
