Invitation to visit the world’s largest membrane roof and the giant pendulum at the World Exposition “Better City, Better Life” on Thursday 3 June 2010 at 2.p.m. in the German Pavilion at the EXPO 2010 in Shanghai/China
Researchers from the University of Stuttgart are involved in two stunningly impressive projects at the EXPO 2010 in Shanghai
- membrane roof
- Images: Thomas Ott, Nühltal
The world’s largest membrane roof covers the central entrance axis of the EXPO. Spanning almost 100 metres and spreading over 65,000 square metres, it is pushing technology to its limits. Funnel-shaped structures made of steel and glass, so-called sun valleys, direct sunlight into the lower levels. This impressive roof design continues the world-renowned tradition of light-weight construction in Stuttgart. The EXPO Axis* is one of five buildings that will remain in place after the World Exposition closes.
* EXPO Axis: The entire area has been designed by graduates of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Stuttgart who now head the SBA architecture firm in Stuttgart and Shanghai. The roof-bearing structure was designed and built by Knippers Helbig Advanced Engineering, Stuttgart. Prof. Dr. Jan Knippers is head of the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design at the University of Stuttgart.
- pendulum
Image: Milla & Partner / Schmidhuber + Kaindl
It is almost six metres long, weighs over a ton and has a sphere three metres in diameter at the end of it, yet it seems to hover in mid-air – the pendulum in the German Pavilion. It reacts to acoustic signals by the audience, causing it to swing to and fro. The 400,000 LEDs on the sphere generate a spectacular light show, demonstrating the complex yet unusually playful engineering behind the design. The pendulum’s innovative driving mechanism** was developed by researchers at the University of Stuttgart.
** The development of the innovative control and drive mechanism of the pendulum was headed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Prof. E.h. Peter Eberhard of the Institute of Engineering and Computational Mechanics in cooperation with the Institute for Control Engineering of Machine Tools and Manufacturing Units (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alexander Verl). The staff of the Stuttgart Research Centre for Simulation Technology (Jun.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Robert Seifried) and of the Institute of Machine Components (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernd Bertsche) were also involved in the project.