ABSTRACT
Before the fire in 1837, there were two main “systems” for heating and ventilation in the Winter Palace: fireplaces and Dutch stoves. Unused fireplaces with smoke stacks and ventilation channels that were left inside the walls allowed the fire to spread from room to room and ultimately into the attic. As compared to non-hygroscopic materials commonly used in Modernist architecture, the interiors of the Winter Palace are interacting with the air, causing the temperature to fluctuate less, while stabilizing the relative humidity. For Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli was a brilliant man, an architect who mastered to the fullest the art and technology of building. When he returned to Russia from his architectural studies abroad, he found that another young man had joined the club of intellectuals in St Petersburg. Naturally, he would strike up a conversation about the latest trends in architecture.
