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Fibers and Fabrics —
Exciting Prospectives for Architecture and Construction |
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Category No. 5: Composite Structure Andreas Kirchsteiger
The combination of cable-tensioned steel-section compression rings, supported and stabilised by tension-stressed (Kevlar-reinforced) membrane strips running diagonally in two furrows along the outside surface is impressive and logical. The membrane strips, however, are not only a clear constructional component but serve as an “open” roof for the bridge walkway without turning it into a closed tube for the user.
The presentation of the design's creative and structural elements in the model is an impressive success. The model especially is of a high quality. A very high standard of presentation.
Michael Rnttiger Tree-house in the English Garden, Munich The project ideally expresses free formed spatial architecture achievable with a grid shell and fabric, acting together in composite. The location of the building at tree-top level relates ideally to a park or forest setting.
The amoeba-like shape, which is present not only in the basic
plan but also in the visual aspect of the building is well suited
to a park with its arrangements of trees and plants. The house
is raised to tree-top level on rectilinear, arbitrarily vertical
or diagonal supports, which bear the shell of the building in
an irregular, unpatterned manner, allowing it to merge with the
trees of the park and giving observers or visitors no hint of
its true identity until they are quite near, directly in front,
or underneath it. Roofing or enveloping the supporting grid-shell structure with a textile membrane skin provides the interior spaces with a weather-skin, climatic envelope and transparent roof all at the same time. The lightness of the construction is further emphasised in this way. The changing translucency of the envelope varies with the use of the rooms inside. A clear and high-quality presentation. Jnrgen Fischer North Africa Shelter Project This project is a portable, adaptable, flexible shelter using curved wooden ribs as the load-bearing elements and the translucent textile membrane to brace the rods. The membrane serves as a cover and partition element. The details are well resolved in model form. Combined with its collapsibility, which comes from the detailed design of the base of the wooden ribs, together with the way the structure is assembled, this design is without doubt a well thought-out solution for a flexible “house” which can be used under a variety of conditions and environmental influences, and also offers a wide variety of ways for using the space inside. The design exploits the unusually shaped roof, which projects
out to one side, as a natural means of interior ventilation and
uses a twin-layered membrane between or over the ribs as an outside
skin for thermal insulation or protection against heat; both
are convincing and effective solutions that make it ideally suited
to the structural and physical demands of the “house”
in arid and hot climatic regions. |
Tensegrity
Tube Bridge
The
intermittent surface architecture of the bridge fabric provides
wind protection and elegant spiralling surface for illumination.
It offers the user a wealth of surprising and changing views
of what is going on in below, alongside and around the bridge.
Walking over the bridge can be a sensuous experience. The jury
liked the experience of moving along and through the undulating
and dynamic form of the bridge.
