Specialty Fabrics Review June 2020 - 45

COMPLEXITY DRIVES INNOVATION
Constructing the fabric wrap for the tower
posed numerous challenges to Taiyo Europe
GmbH, the project engineer/project manager, as well as the lead installer of the PTFE
glass membrane.
"The complexity and uniqueness of
this project resulted from the height of the
building," says Frank Höreth, managing
director for Taiyo Europe. "Due to the high
altitude and continuous movement of the
concrete tower caused by wind and sunlight,
a special method of surveying was needed to
develop the precise positioning of anchors"
for attaching the helical steel pipes.
The local construction safety regulations
also imposed on the process. Consequently,
Taiyo Europe created a ring-shaped
installation platform that moved up and
down the tower. Installing and mounting
the anchors began from the bottom, followed
by attaching the six helical steel pipes and
attachments for the fabric beginning from
the top down. Some 1,150 anchor plates
were affixed, and attached to these were steel
A-beams that were used to hold the fabric
away from the concrete tower surface by 2.5
meters (8 feet).
AWARD WINNING
AND SUSTAINABLE
Architects are always trying to find more value
in their designs that give back to the client, and
energy savings are a big part of all construction
worldwide by mandate for obvious reasons.
When efficiency can be combined with good
aesthetics, everyone wins.
"Sustainably, the concrete mass is used
as energy storage," says Jahn, where any
"existing waste heat is used to condition the
rooms." This strategy of finding secondary
and sometimes tertiary means of ringing
every last BTU out of the energy consumed
by buildings is more and more the norm for
architectural and construction practice.
The ThyssenKrupp tower was given the
Balthasar Neumann Award for 2018, a prize
that is awarded to a team for outstanding
achievements in integral planning. The award
highlights how different disciplines have
cooperated "in an exemplary and innovative
manner and far exceeding established
engineering standards to construct a building."

In the same year, the tower earned the German
Federal Engineering Award and was a finalist
for the German Facade Award. More recently,
the tower received the 2019 Award of Excellence
in the Hybrid Tension Structure category of
IFAI's International Achievement Awards
(IAA) and earned the IAA "Best in Category"
title for all fabric structure projects.
Precedent-setting in both structural and
honorary fields, the ThyssenKrupp tower is
a success socially for its observation deck: in
its first year of operation, more than 250,000
visitors enjoyed great views of the Alps and
surrounding valley.
"The monumentality of this tower," Jahn
says, "is evident both day and night by the
light. Sculptural and dematerialized, the
tower becomes a true landmark."

WANT MORE? WE HAVE IT!

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Bruce N. Wright, FAIA, is an architect and consultant
to architects, as well as a senior instructor at
Dunwoody College of Technology. He is a frequent
contributor to Specialty Fabrics Review and Advanced
Textiles Source.

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