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Air domes: last of a dying breed?
September 1st, 2010
Minneapolis’ Metrodome fabric roof may be the last of a dying breed. By Mason Riddle Are air-supported dome stadia dead? Has the characteristic “marshmallow-in-bondage” design had its day for multipurpose stadia? Many within the building industry, as well as professional sports teams and their fans, answer a decided “yes.” However, a few, such as David […]
Herzog & de Meuron’s Allianz Arena 10+ yrs
September 1st, 2010
The Allianz Arena in retrospect. By Mark Zeh It’s been more than five years since the opening of the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany. In the meantime, the stadium—designed by Herzog & de Meuron Architekten of Basel, Switzerland—has become a symbol of both Munich and Germany. Construction of the Allianz Arena, located in Fröttmaning, along […]
Millennium Dome – What’s up with that?
September 1st, 2010
London rang in the new century under the Millennium Dome’s fabric roof. Ten years later, how is the roof holding up? By Tanya Ross Editor’s note: The iconic Millennium Dome—designed and built in time for the United Kingdom to celebrate the turn of the millennium at New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, 1999—has thrived as a […]
Shade ‘sails’ on California marina keep boaters in the breeze
September 1st, 2010
Stockton, located in the hot and dry Central Valley of California about 60 miles east of San Francisco Bay, began during the Gold Rush of 1848. After an initial flirtation with prospecting, the city, with its strategic location at the center of the San Joaquin Delta network of waterways, soon found it paid more handsomely […]
Florida golf and country club scores big with customized retractable awnings
September 1st, 2010
The Kensington Golf & Country Club in Naples, Fla., is not the sort of place to scrimp—on anything. The 370-acre (148ha) complex, located in the heart of this southwestern Florida city, boasts a par-71 course designed by renowned golf course designer Robert Trent Jones, Jr., a 2,700m2 clubhouse and seven clay tennis courts on the […]
Students design breakfast spaces out of fabric
September 1st, 2010
The response to this challenge was as varied as the students who designed the spaces. Spring 2010 at the College of Design, University of Minnesota this author (and editor of this magazine), taught an undergraduate-level product innovation and new materials course called “(Un)Wrapping it All Up: New Materials for Design: Design for New Materials.” The […]
Going to the limits: structural basics
September 1st, 2010
To achieve the freedom of form that a fabric roof promises, strict rules must be obeyed if pitfalls and problems are to be avoided. By Craig Huntington No type of structure—whether it uses steel, wood, concrete, masonry or some more exotic material—conveys such an image of freedom of form as the fabric tension structure. This […]
Ingo Lishke, 1963-2010
August 5th, 2010
By Ali Heshmati The fabric structures world has lost another luminary. Ingo Lishke, the founder and director of Textil Bau GmbH, Trittau (Hamburg), Germany, a company specializing in the fabrication of small- and mid-sized fabric structures passed away June 16, 2010. Lishke was known throughout Europe and Asia as one of the best and most […]
Günter Behnisch, 1922-2010
August 3rd, 2010
By Mark Zeh Munich, Germany, July 19, 2010 On July 12, Professor Dr. E.h. Günter Behnisch passed away in Stuttgart at the age of 88. During his colorful, active life, he’d been a U-Boat commander during the Second World War, a prisoner of war in England after the war, then one of the leading architects […]
In memoriam: Roger Gant Jr.
July 27th, 2010
Former Glen Raven president Roger Gant Jr. has died at the age of 86. Gant served Glen Raven Inc. for 55 years in a variety of management positions and as president and board member. He also led the Glen Raven team that created Glen Raven’s Sunbrella® brand of performance fabrics in the early 1960s. “It […]