Eleven steel cables with a diameter of 5 mm each are suspended ten metres above the ground and span the hall’s 94.5 m longitudinal length. Their shape was form-found using graphic statics, a vector-based structural design method that allows for simultaneous control of form and forces. Ten fabric strips hang from the steel cables. Their geometry was designed in relation to the structural pattern of the existing building. In fact, the undulation of the hanging elements follows the repartition of the slender reinforced concrete roof trusses that characterize the interior of the existing hall. The final materialisation of the project resembles an abstract cloud floating inside the hall. Thanks to the perforated fabric, the canopy maintains visual continuity with the concrete trusses on the roof of the existing hall.
Exhibition Period: Fall 2021
Collaborator: Raplab, TU Munich, EPFL, Jakob AG