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New entrance canopy for the United Nations
May 1st, 2011
New York architects and engineers FTL Design Engineering Studio have completed a tensioned fabric porte cochere for the entrance of the United Nations General Assembly building north lawn. While the main assembly building is undergoing renovations, a temporary General Assembly building accommodates delegates. FTL’s design serves as an entrance and security screen, and is envisioned […]
Canvas canopies mushroom in renovated gallery
May 1st, 2011
The Brooklyn Museum completed the first phase of renovation in its 900m2 colonnaded great hall and sought a unique installation to celebrate the space and serve as a hub for visitors. Situ Studio, Brooklyn, N.Y., created huge, mushroom-like canvas canopies around each of the gallery’s monumental columns to give the late 19th century architecture a […]
New materials, new outlook
May 1st, 2011
What the future looks like, as seen in Munich By Mark Zeh The 2011 Bau Messe (Construction Trade Fair), covering most commercial aspects of architecture, materials and systems for the creation of new structures, takes place in Munich every two years. It’s the largest construction trade fair in Europe—and the volume of people and exhibitors […]
Fabric golf driving range in Guangzhou
May 1st, 2011
A practice range for golfers in Guangzhou, China, reduces its impact on the land by using tensile fabric canopies Mayland Lake Resort is located at the outskirts of Guangzhou, China’s third-largest city (about 120km northwest of Hong Kong), and is surrounded by an 18-hole golf course, freshwater lake, natural forest and world-class resort community. It […]
Building innovation at Shanghai Expo
May 1st, 2011
An interview with Yutaka Hikosaka, architect and designer of Japan’s technologically advanced pavilion at World Expo 2010 Shanghai, China. Editor’s note: This interview with Mr. Yutaka Hikosaka was conducted by Ms. Kikuko Tagawa, executive director of IFAI Japan, on March 8, 2011 in the offices of Taiyo Kogyo Corp., Tokyo, Japan. Hikosaka was the architectural […]
Century Lotus Stadium
May 1st, 2011
The Foshan stadium, a large cable-membrane structure, is the landmark of Foshan City. The stadium has a total membrane area of around 71,000m2, and membrane coverage of approximately 53,420m2. Its roofing structure is composed of 40 membrane units, with an area of 901m2 each. The overlaid design of the membrane fully utilizes the entire bearing […]
Shenzhen East Huaqiao-City Water Park
May 1st, 2011
A three-layer ETFE cushion roof covers the Shenzhen East Huaqiao amusement and indoor water park. Since part of the roof is retractable, the ETFE cushions and corresponding air circulation systems were designed to move with the retractable roof. Because the building’s overall shape is so complex, few of the several hundred blue ETFE cushions are […]
South Korea Pavilion
May 1st, 2011
Another Shanghai World Expo 2010 pavilion of note is the South Korea Corp pavilion as it is enveloped entirely in a white translucent PVC fabric. Wrapping around the upper floors of the pilotis structure like a water wave, the fabric encloses the exhibition areas in a series of helical swathes that are backlit with LED […]
Norway Pavilion
May 1st, 2011
The number of pavilions created especially for Shanghai World Expo 2010 that incorporated architectural fabric was impressive. A good third of the country venues incorporated textiles in some form or another, including Norway’s. “Norway powered by Nature” consisted of 15 “trees” constructed from laminated wood and bamboo (a new product developed in China called “GluBam®”) […]
High performance
May 1st, 2011
A retractable fabric roof revitalizes the open-air theater at a historic castle in the Austrian Alps One of the most popular tourist destinations in the Alps, Kufstein village and castle (often called “The Pearl of the Tyrol”), dates from before the 13th century. The medieval Kufstein fortress was built as a defensive stronghold in the […]