As always, big industrial control rooms look amazing. But wow, that way of showing ads is one of the worst I've ever seen. (I really do need adblock on mobile ig)
Orion browser works great for me on my iPhone.
The vintage beauty of Soviet control rooms (2018)
61–70 of 70 posts
Re: The vintage beauty of Soviet control rooms (2018)
#62I always wonder when I see a picture of a cockpit of an airplane how many meters there are. Don't know why they need so many, what meters do you need to fly a plane?
Navigation equipment, radios, autopilot, auto-throttle, multiple engines with multiple parameters to be controlled, multiple hydraulic systems, pressurization and environmental controls. Consider that for each jet engine you have different displays for RPMs, temperatures, oil pressure. Things add up fast.
Modern airliners do away with most dedicated instrumentation (a few critical ones such as airspeed, compass heading, and altitude might still have analog backups) and use a few screens to display all of this. Computers monitor most of the parameters and issue alerts when anything is out of normal.
Re: The vintage beauty of Soviet control rooms (2018)
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, how about this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85gesta_Nuclear_Plant#/med... This is from Swedens Ågesta Nuclear Plant, the first in the country. I don't really get why you'd need all the used floor space. That seems to really be the key difference from those early control rooms and more modern ones. The old ones had you walking around and the new ones are designed to keep you seated. Still, it seems lik…
Heat dissipation and gracious distances for installation and servicing.
Good point - all those incandescent lamps must have put out huge amounts of heat.
Similarly, the stereotypical giant plasma displays in old-school telco/ISP NOCs made for a properly toasty environment. I know one ISP in the early 2000s who had to bring in a spare datacentre aircon unit to reinforce the puny office system which was completely unable to cope by itself.
Re: The vintage beauty of Soviet control rooms (2018)
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a specific Soviet design sensibility in the post in question that is lacking in those images.
I'm pretty sure it's just the old photo look (plus the fact that in the current version, part of the space have been colonized by computers, which kind of ruins the mood).
That's not true. If you look at Chernobyl Family[1]'s videos, modern Russian war equipment internals and their color choices, there's a longstanding research and deliberate choice behind them.
Soviets/Russians seems to select the seafoam or tealish green colors as backgrounds since these colors create a calmer environment which helps when everything else is pressuring you.
The most interesting thing is public ISS telemetry page at [2]. Go to Russian version and the color scheme changes to a bluish one which they also use with some of the interiors/control panels Russians use in similar equipment.
Re: The vintage beauty of Soviet control rooms (2018)
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a specific Soviet design sensibility in the post in question that is lacking in those images.
I'm pretty sure it's just the old photo look (plus the fact that in the current version, part of the space have been colonized by computers, which kind of ruins the mood).
Is there some sort of cultural revisionism where we are expected to deny the existence of e.g. the Soviet design sensibility because of contemporary politics? What a bizarre response.
Re: The vintage beauty of Soviet control rooms (2018)
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a specific Soviet design sensibility in the post in question that is lacking in those images.
Well, how about this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85gesta_Nuclear_Plant#/med... This is from Swedens Ågesta Nuclear Plant, the first in the country. I don't really get why you'd need all the used floor space. That seems to really be the key difference from those early control rooms and more modern ones. The old ones had you walking around and the new ones are designed to keep you seated. Still, it seems lik…
That's because you look at it with a modern eye.
It required a lot of wires back in the day. A lot.
Re: The vintage beauty of Soviet control rooms (2018)
#67It's not specific to the Soviet world, any control room built before computers looks like that. The examples I'm familiar with is nuclear power plants from the 70s: - here's Bugey, the oldest active nuclear plant in France: https://cdn-s-www.leprogres.fr/images/5A6732BE-29F9-43FA-806... - And here's Dampierre, the second oldest, which I was lucky enough to visit: https://www.larep.fr/photoSRC/Gw--/centrale-nucleaire-…
It gives me strong impressions of the aesthetic in the show Maniac (~2018)
Re: The vintage beauty of Soviet control rooms (2018)
#68It is not really "vintage" for modern Russia. For example, search Combined Heat and Power control room images: https://www.google.com/search?udm=2&q=%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%... - barely any computer screen. I've seen one of those fully functional on 2010; with no plan for modernization (it just works).
Re: The vintage beauty of Soviet control rooms (2018)
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
META: Make sure that your adblocker is set to 11 on that site. In the first edition of The Design of Everyday Things [0], Norman has a photo of beer tap handles on control levers in a nuclear power plant control room. This was done, to differentiate two important handles. I won’t link to the photo, because it’s on personal blogs, and I don’t want to hug anyone’s site to death. The photo was removed, in the current ve…
I've seen pictures of the cockpit of a large plane where the gear lever has an actual wheel on the end of it. I think that is exceptional good design.
Actually mandated for aircraft:
https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/22680/why-is-th...
Also, the flaps lever is shaped like a small wing
Re: The vintage beauty of Soviet control rooms (2018)
#70It's not specific to the Soviet world, any control room built before computers looks like that. The examples I'm familiar with is nuclear power plants from the 70s: - here's Bugey, the oldest active nuclear plant in France: https://cdn-s-www.leprogres.fr/images/5A6732BE-29F9-43FA-806... - And here's Dampierre, the second oldest, which I was lucky enough to visit: https://www.larep.fr/photoSRC/Gw--/centrale-nucleaire-…
Very true. It reminds me of the aesthetic[1] of German musician Hainbach[2]'s studio. He makes use of a lot of early test equipment. The look is very functional but not ugly. It's not colourful but everything is well made because it's made for professionals. I see the same thing in mid-century BBC studios. -- 1. Which I love. 2. https://www.hainbachmusik.com/
> It reminds me of the aesthetic[1] of German musician Hainbach[2]'s studio.
Not to be confused with German musician Haindling's studio, which is a beer hall.