German contribution to the 5th bienal de arquitetura de brasilia in a new digital version
11–26 November 2006
At this biennial, the DAM was showcasing its most successful exhibition of the last few years, the retrospective leicht weit – Light Structures. Jörg Schlaich & Rudolf Bergermann. With it, the museum was presenting the most renowned, international engineering studio from Germany as an inseparable part of building culture.
Brasilia is one of the most significant new cities of the Modernist era. From 1956 onwards, it was planned under the leadership of urban planner Lucio Costa and architect Oscar Niemeyer, to whom DAM devoted a major solo show four years ago. The biennial took place in the Brazilian capital’s new congress center, the Centro de Convenções Ulysses Guimarães.
Jörg Schlaich, Emeritus Professor at the Institute for Construction and Design at the University of Stuttgart, and Rudolf Bergermann are the founding partners of world-renowned engineering studio Schlaich Bergermann und Partner (www.sbp.de) in Stuttgart, which has offices in New York and Berlin. With their projects, they take up the challenge of the holistic issues that result from technology as the driving force of development. Innovative load-bearing concepts are the product of an interdisciplinary design process: In the area of tension between knowledge and intuition, science and pragmatism. For Schlaich and Bergermann, building means fulfilling individual and social requirements with concepts that are both technically and economically feasible. Social requirements also include the highest possible use of renewable energy.
The exhibition is structured in three parts. In the first part, “light structures”, the basic principles of load transfer and structural engineering will be illustrated with a selection of construction systems. The second part, the core of the exhibition, will display the studio’s most important projects, which are characterized by innovative load-bearing structures, high aesthetic value and a sparing use of resources. In Frankfurt, the roof of the Commerzbank Arena – the world’s largest convertible – is evidence of this. The third section, the presentation of energy generating systems and their prototypes, completes the exhibition. Here, visitors will be able to discover how solar power plants and windfarms work.
The exhibition opened in the DAM in November 2003 and ran until February 2004 and then went on tour around the world in four different versions, for example, to the Universities of Yale, IUAV Venezia, Tongji Shanghai and Southwestern University Nanjing. The completely digital show, which will be transported to and set up at the 5th.bienal de arquitetura de brasilia 2006 (www.bienalbrasilia.com.br), will be the 10th presentation of the exhibition. The next exhibition in Germany will take place on the occasion of the opening of Ingenieurkunst Galerie’s new premises in the Mitte district of Berlin in early 2007.
A 320-page German\English language catalog was published in 2003 by Prestel Verlag (Munich \ New York). The second edition is almost sold out, a Chinese version has already been published, and a Spanish one is in the pipeline. In book shops, the first German language monograph on Schlaich Bergermann und Partner costs € 65, and at the DAM, the museum edition costs € 35. The book contains essays by well-known American engineering theorist David Billington of Princeton University, long-time architecture partner Volkwin Marg of Architekturbüro gmp from Hamburg, and bridge engineer and architect Marc Mimram from Paris. Contributions by the three editors Annette Bögle, current director of the DAM Peter Cachola Schmal and former director Ingeborg Flagge illuminate Jörg Schlaich and Rudolf Bergermann’s work from various perspectives. A personal word by Jörg Schlaich on his partner Rudolf Bergermann rounds out the picture.