ePub Opera Coaching by Alan Montgomery in Arts-Photography

Description

As well as much-needed electricity; dams generate extremes of emotion. Traditionally; dams have facilitated hydraulic civilizations such as those in the Nile Valley; China and Mesopotamia; and; in the twentieth century; Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Yet with the proliferation of dams ndash; there are now more than 40;000 large dams worldwide ndash; opposition and support can be measured in equal proportion. Their outstanding design and construction; often in inhospitable conditions; is representative of the skills of their engineers; yet others do not see such beauty in the lsquo;tamingrsquo; of rivers. In 1998 the continuing controversy led to the forming of the World Commission on Dams to seek a meeting of minds.Dam; a new addition to Reaktionrsquo;s Objekt series; traces the development of dams from the Industrial Revolution to the present day through a number of themes ndash; both successes and failures ndash; including the extension of the design teams forming an alliance between engineering; architecture; landscape architecture and ecology.A profusely illustrated exploration of a previously neglected subject; this book is neither a polemic against dams nor a defence of their proliferation. It offers a fresh and much-needed account of their design; construction and function; which will appeal to general readers and those interested in environmental policy; history and civil engineering.