Shukhov Tower

The Shukov Broadcasting Tower located in Moscow was designed by structural engineer Vladimir Shukov. Sometimes referred to as the Shukov Radio Tower or Shabolovka Tower, the hyperboloid stands 160 feet high, is composed of 40 storeys and was built between 1919-1922. The original plan was to create something double the size.

Shukov, both an architect and engineer is credited with creating the world’s first hyperboloid structure in 1896 in the form of a water tower for the All Russian Exposition Industry and Art exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod. The Moscow tower was built more than 24 years later and from the outset was intended to be a radio transmitter. Shukov’s legacy was firmly sealed when the Soviet government transmitted the country’s first public radio and television signals from the Moscow hyperboloid on March 19th 1922.

The tower was one of a series of similar structures Shukov created, some used as part of a cross country power grid system and others used on ships, and as lighthouses.

Today the tower is no longer in use and sits on several international ‘at risk’ lists. The metal is corroded and it has suffered from some alterations undertaken in the 1970s (according to the World’s Monument Fund).

Image ©Natalia Melikova The Constructivist Project