ADAPTATION “INSTITUTE OF RADIO ELECTRONICS” BUILDING IN KHARKIV FOR MODERN USING
Authors:   Kharkiv National University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Shvydenko O. 
Published: April 2021

Adaptation to modern requirements of buildings, which have got a status of architectural landmarks, is always a compromise between the preservation of authentic elements and bringing the building into line with current standards. In the Building of the Institute of Radio Electronics, the architectural landmark of Kharkiv region, it was necessary to build an elevator to provide barrier-free access to the premises.The goal of this research is to find the best place for a new elevator, where meddling into the building’s body from one side will make minimum damage for its structure and interior design and from another side can be most convenient for users.To solve this problem, it was necessary to collect materials about “Institute of radio electronics” building: conduct bibliographic surveys and search materials in different archives. Historical documents, photos, sketches and historical drawings and field research materials about this building must be put together. Analysis of the collected materials showedthat building was designed in the second part of 1930 for new Kharkov Civil Engineering Institute (KhCEI), which was found in April 1930. In 1930 the place for the building structure was chosen. A KhCEI building architectural competition took place in 1930. The authors of the winning project were Yakiv Steinberg, Rosaliya Fridman. For the KhCEI building J. Steinberg suggested to make experimental constructivist complex. The architect paid special attention to the functioning of the building. Taking into attention that the formation of the department structure of the institute continued until 1932, the architects had only approximate characteristics of the functioning of the house.The building had a long distributor block to which other blocks, intended for separate specializations, were adjoined at right angles. The stairways or ramps were in the corridors of the distributor block as well as in the opposite edges of the transverse blocks. The ground floors and second floors had corridors, which distributedstudents to the necessary premises. The first floor and partly the ground floor were intended for laboratories. The second floor, which had a corridor system, was divided into small rooms for group classes, and the third floor contained large halls for drawing classes had free planning (later became enfilades). Near the stairs there were also the servicing premises combined in one block –toilets, tool rooms and archives, professors' offices with small subdepartment libraries.Only one half of this project was finished in 1933. The complex was damaged during the II World war. In August 1943, the destroyed building was handed to Kharkiv Mining Engineering Institute (KhMEI).In 1944-1945 Dmitry Torubarov developed the project of reconstruction of this complex. His solution preserved Steinberg's idea, but added new parts to it. Torubarov changed the outer view of the complex, because the environment around it had been modified.In 1930 Steinberg worked with an empty area, where were only the main road and the ravine. He made a composition, which was supposed to look from the view point between the main road and the ravine best of all. In 1946 Torubarov worked in the new town area, where the ravine created an empty space in front of the composition. The corner between the main road (that became a significant avenue later) and the ravine wasn't so important. Torubarov moved the center of the composition to the center of facade facing to the ravine.