Glass in a load-carrying role
Under this apt heading, the Swiss Baumuster-Centrale ZurichSwiss Baumuster-Centrale Zurich invites you to the finishing of the exhibition INSIGHTS “Glass – Light:Material” on 13th of June. The special show was devoted to glass, a versatile building material, as an important design element of contemporary architecture. In particular, the shift in the boundaries of what is technically feasible is constantly opening up new applications for the material, which is impressively underlined by the presentation on the closing evening. Using the example of the “Maison des Fondateurs“, the spectacular new watch museum of Audemars Piguet in the Vallée de Joux, an interdisciplinary team of planners demonstrates the use of glass as a supporting element.
The exhibition building, designed by BIG, screws itself out of the landscape with a double spiral and is reminiscent of the spring drive of a clockwork. The roof of the museum circuit literally floats over the frameless, curved glasses, which are up to six metres high. Additional load-bearing elements were completely omitted in order to achieve transparency and maximize the view of the landscape.
Project manager Philippe Willareth from Lüchinger+Meyer and Georg Pfefferle and Michael Purzer from Frener & Reifer, the engineering firm responsible for the project, provide an insight into the planning process and the unusually close cooperation, explain the glass production process and describe its demanding installation on the construction site. As there were no comparable reference projects, the project work was pioneering: innovative calculation methods were applied, innovative glass bearings developed and various load case and breakage scenarios examined on the test bench of the Institute of Civil Engineering at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
Finishing: Thursday, 13th of June, 6pm – 8pm, Baumuster-Centrale Zurich, Weberstrasse 4, 8004 Zurich
