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

Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 3/2024

A free translation to English:

It is not likely that the water tower in the Rosemont district of northern Chicago in the United States contains rose water. Consumers would hardly accept getting such a product in their taps, even though it is fragrant. In addition, rose water is an expensive liquid, as one of the ingredients is rose oil, an extract obtained from fresh rose petals.

Rose water is known by, for example, Persians for several thousand years. It has been blended into mortar to get smelling walls, but it is more difficult to mix in rose water in the steel from which the water tower is built. You can still admire the beautiful odorless rose bouquet.

Published 2024-04-30

Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 4/2024

A free translation to English:

About half of Finland’s Finnish-Swedish population lives in Ostrobothnia. Here, at the height of Umeå, is Jakobstad, with a population of just under 20,000 inhabitants. The city has always had a Swedish-speaking majority and was founded in 1652 by the widow after Jakob De la Gardie, hence the name.

The city’s water supply was added at the beginning of the 20th century, but where the proposal in 1913 for a water tower was never realized due to the cost. On the other hand, a water tower with a vantage point was realized, which was completed in 1930 and has stylistic features from both classicism and art deco. It was designed by the architect and professor Lars Sonck.

Published 2024-06-05

Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 5/2024

A free translation to English:

A water tower can in its design be connected to the surroundings, have historical references or be something completely new. In Brittany, France, is the small town of Sainte-Sève, which, when building a new water tower next to the new motorway, chose to organize an architectural competition in 1987.

This was won by architect Paul Tromeur, who with the proposal for Totem or the name of the Native American people gave society a very well-known landmark. The question is whether this can inspire children to play, the in word form more circumstantial ‘Native Americans and cowboys’?

Published 2024-08-28

Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 6/2024

A free translation to English:

Sapp Bros. Truck Stops is a company in the American Midwest, which has a number of filling stations for lorries, where there is also food and accommodation for the drivers. There were four brothers Sapp, who in 1971 started a gas station at a large intersection in Omaha, Nebraska.

There was already a water tower on the site, because the area was located outside the waterworks’ area of activity. The brothers realized the importance of the water tower and shaped it as a coffee pot so that prospective customers would find the gas station more easily. The business has increased to 18 Truck Stops, all with the logo – the coffee pot water tower.

Published 2024-10-02

Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 7/2024

A free translation to English:

There are water towers that have many activities inside their walls. Such a tower stands in German Reichenbach, a town in Vogtland in southern Saxony. It is not just a water tower, but there is also an inn, a youth hostel and at the top a good view.   

Architect of the 28 m high water tower, which was built in 1926, was Rudolf Ladewig. After the GDR period, the tower was reconstructed in 1997/98 and then 1,000 m3 of concrete reservoirs were replaced with four steel cisterns totaling 410 m3. The water tower in functional style is today a building memory and there you can visit a museum about the tower on some days during the summer.

Published 2024-11-13

Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 8/2024

A free translation to English:

The Limfjord in Jutland is a water that creates the northern Jutland island of Vendsyssel-Thy. Farthest to the east, with a ferry connection across the Limfjord, is the community of Hals. It is an old Nordic name for narrow strait, a word that has become Helsing in the words Helsingborg and Helsingør.

In Hals, a water tower in red brick with a classic Danish tile roof was built in 1919, according to drawings by I. P. Hansen. The tower, with a weather vane depicting the Greek sea god Triton, has housed offices for the local waterworks. Hals was an independent municipality until the merger in 2007 with the city of Aalborg.

Published 2024-12-11