DETAIL 3/2019 — Concept: Research and Education

Excerpt from the editorial of the issue structure – published by DETAIL 04/2018:

Not every good idea becomes a building. However, with tenacity and an adequate building budget, even innovative concepts can be occasionally realised. An example is the reverberation gallery in the renovated Berlin State Opera, the load-bearing lattice structure of which was moulded from phosphate ceramic.

The buildings also deal with the materialisation of completely different architectural concepts. Maximum transparency was required for the metro entrance structures in Brescia, while the roof of the Macallan Distillery in Scotland seamlessly integrates into a natural landscape. For the Morpheus Hotel in Macau, the engineers had to give a completely irregular shape a regular load-bearing structure. Teatro BioBío in Concepción was different again: a regular but slim orthogonal reinforced concrete grid frame had to be designed for earthquake loads.

A multistorey timber frame characterises the International House in Sydney and the Expo 2015 Chile Pavilion. In the latter, the structural engineers’ task was to design a building to be erected twice – first in Milan and then in its final location in Temuco, southern Chile. The fascination exercised by this “mobile building” was also recognised by the jury of this year’s Detail Prize. It awarded the pavilion the special prize in the category “structure”.

Jakob Schoof

The current edition structure 01/2018 introduces outstanding engineering accomplishments such as the new Queensferry Crossing cable-stayed bridge across the Firth of Forth in Scotland with its 210 metre (683ft) high towers and a total span of more than 2.7 kilometres (1.7 miles). It also documents other exciting structural solutions such as the open trusses of a deli market in Stuttgart or the expressive steel construction of a pedestrian bridge in Beer Sheba in Israel. A technology presentation centre in Chicago is the basis for showing how a piece of structural engineering that can be walked on can itself be an exhibition piece.

In an accompanying feature article in the first part of the edition Werner Sobek points out the comprehensive responsibility that the engineers must carry for the construction of the future. Finally, two technical articles deal with very different and special structural solutions made with concrete: a complex shell form as a roof structure and a folded-plate roofing with a large span for an office building.

One of the most unusual building sites of ­recent years, the summit station for the Zugspitze cable car, shows how engineers also have to find appropriate solutions for building under extreme conditions. An article in this ­issue of structure describes the special challenges of this project.

The other projects demonstrate that special situations can call for unconventional structural engineering solutions –such as the delicately proportioned and open vehicle decks that allow extensive views from the inner-city parking garage in Bordeaux. In the conversion of the Alstrom warehouses into the new Nantes School of Art, the designers replaced most of the existing sawtooth-roof structure with a modern version, yet still managed to draw on the atmosphere of the original halls. A place of transcendental character was created with the Memorial Hall at Herzlberg west of Jerusalem. The interior is defined by a central sculpture made of ingeniously connected ­aluminium blocks. All the articles emphasise the important role in society played by civil and structural engineers.

Andreas Gabriel