Eber’s water towers 2024

The leading trade journal in Sweden, VA-tidskriften Cirkulation has since 1998 an article series under the heading Ebers vattentorn (Eber’s water towers), where Eber Ohlsson with text and photo presents interesting water towers in the world (except Scania and Sweden). Below is a free translation to English of these texts.

Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 1/2024

A free translation to English:

Pier Luigi Nervi was a famous engineer in Italy, as with his sense of the aesthetics also came to shape many prestigious buildings, such as Rome’s Olympic Stadium for the Olympics in 1960 and the UNESCO building in Paris in 1950. His distinguishing mark became concrete buildings with an advanced and often visible structure.  

‘Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino’, a company that is better known under the acronym FIAT, has since 1968 a water tower standing inside its large factory Mirafiore in south Turin, a water tower, designed by just Pier Luigi Nervi. The water tower reservoir has the typical exposed concrete structure, as Nervi is known for.

Published 2024-02-14

Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 2/2024

A free translation to English:

80 steam locomotives in the activity on a shunting yard with 73 tracks in width require a lot of water. Therefore, in 1915-16 built a water tower with housing was built in Hohenbudberg, west of the Rhine in the German Ruhr area. River water was purified and pumped into the 35 m high tower, with two reservoirs on totally 1 000 m3.

Since the shunting yard was Germany’s second largest and militarily very significant, it became heavily damaged during World War II, but rebuilt. The tower lost its importance with electrifying of the railway, and is now a listed building. The structural transformation of the society entailed closing-down of the shunting yard 1986.

Published 2024-03-20