Bundes Presse Strand

Berlin (2010)

Located along the Spree River in Berlin, Bundes Presse Strand is a public art and cultural venue that sought to create a shade structure that also helped to frame the city beyond the site. By using the existing building and a balcony extension to anchor a temporary tensile membrane structure, this project attempted to extend an interiority and informal pattern language on two levels.

The project involved the collaboration with Z3rch Structural Engineers (Berlin) and artist Karen Schroeder (Berlin). Because of the high exposure of the site, the wind loads and shading required by the program served to help inform the shaping and patterning of a form that could respond to these influences simultaneously. 

The drawings for this project anticipated the 10% and 8% stretch of the two axis of the knit fabric, as well as the stretch resulting from the bias of the fabric pattern.

Project partners: Sergio Leiva & Z3rch Structural Engineers, Karen Schroeder