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'Textile Structures for New Building' winners announced

15 May '19
4 min read
'The Bubble' has won the first prize in the category macro architecture. Pic: Messe Frankfurt

Eight projects have received awards in the ‘Textile Structures for New Buildings’ competition. For the 15th time, the competition for young talent were honoured for their innovative approaches and excellent material solutions from the world of textile construction during Techtextil on May 14, 2019 and during a special show in the foyer of hall 4.2.

An international jury of renowned civil engineers and architects has awarded six prizes and two commendations. The student competition was organised jointly by the international association TensiNet as sponsor and Techtextil gave the prizes for innovative ideas for building with textiles and textile-reinforced materials, according to a press release on Techtextil.

The submitted works covered a very wide range of services and variety of topics and focused among other things on material applications, building designs, utilisation concepts and environmental solutions as well as assembly and construction concepts.

One prize was awarded to the project ‘Airdapt’. Rebecca Schedler from the Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin developed an adaptable kinetic wall system that offers the possibility of dividing large rooms into smaller working areas that can become more or less transparent and more or less sound-absorbing depending on requirements.

The first prize for Marco architecture was given to Hugo Cifre from the Universidad Europea de Madrid/Espacio La Nube and Miguel Angel Maure Blesa from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid for the project ‘Bubble’. This pneumatically supported walk-in cuboid had a square layout and a height of approximately 4 metres. The entrances were elegantly integrated into the geometry and become effective when the cuboid is under slight positive air pressure. Attracted by the unusual object, visitors were literally ‘sucked into’ the interior.

Second prize was given to Thitiwut Pakdee, Surakist Hunpaisarn, and Chonticha Wimonchailerk from the Thai Thammasat University for their work ‘Membrane Shelter for Shipyard’, which provides a membrane canopy for the site of a former shipyard in Ayutthaya (Thailand) to protect the plant from direct sunlight, wind and rain. The concept was inspired by the sails and waves of classic shipbuilding.

Ruichen Tang from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid has been awarded third prize for the entry ‘Tensegrity Cloud’. The visual lightness of the ‘basic modules’ formed by this design, which consist of a textile-covered steel frame, is supplemented by a structural advantage, namely that the forces within the overall self-stabilising system balance each other out.

Based on this year’s special Techtextil theme, Masa Zujovic, Isidora Kojovic, and Nevena Jeremic from the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Architecture (Serbia) received an award for their ‘Voro-Membrane’ design. What at first glance seemed convincing as an aesthetic solution for providing shade in public street spaces is based on the mathematical pattern of Voronoi structures. The resulting exciting interplay of light and shadow could be further explored in an urban context and applied to a wide variety of situations.

In the material innovations category, Magdalena Wierzbicka from the Dutch Piet Zwart Institute has been awarded a prize for her project ‘Woven Spaces - Porcelain Textiles’. Here, the jury honoured the fact that the contribution draws on the Thuringian tradition of porcelain lace from the late 19th century and transforms it into a modern design language.

The project ‘A Catalyst for Urban Renewal’ by Galen Rochon from Canada’s Dalhousie University – School of Architecture received a commendation. In this design for the Prince of Wales Bridge in Ottawa, an industrial monument that has lain unused for 20 years, various possibilities were shown for hanging double-curved membrane surfaces in the existing, regularly structured truss construction and stiffening them if necessary.

The design ‘XCape’ submitted by Lobke Beckfeld from the Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin also received praise. It presents a hybrid vehicle whose space is generated by variable folding configurations and can be used in a variety of ways. (GK)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India

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