structure 4/2018

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 on the following pages 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”.