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Radu Tîrcă and Ștefania Hîrleață are students at University of Architecture and Urbanism 'Ion Mincu', Bucharest. At present, they lead their theoretical research on the subject of thermal towns and diploma projects in Govora Baths under the guidance of Stefan Simion, Irina Tulbure and Ilinca Paun Constantinescu. As students, they won second prize and best student project in a BeeBreeders international architecture competition - Mango Vynil Hub, third prize in a Zeppelin national competition - Prototip pentru comunitate, as well as other mentions in other competitions.
Technology trumps ideology
What if not a person, but knowledge is the one that migrates? Hugh Lincoln Cooper’s expertise circulated to the USA, South America, Africa, and Europe. After he coordinated two of the most challenging American infrastructure projects, Niagara Falls and Mississippi River hydroelectric dams, considered to be impracticable at that moment, Cooper was commissioned in South America, Africa, Europe, and even in Russia. He became such an indispensable professional that, despite Stalin’s disapproval of Western culture, Cooper was needed to complete the biggest European dam on Dnieper River. When Lenin defined communism as `soviet power+electrification`, he directed the economic life of the new nation along a line parallel to the long industrial progress. Therefore, Stalin even had dinner with Cooper, being aware of the need for know-how import on this specific domain.
Cooper’s work is still regarded as a model for the transfer of industrial skills from technologically advanced societies to those less so.
Images:
[1] Col. Hugh L. Coope, American dam builder
[2] Col. Hugh L. Cooper, opening of a dam in USSR
