Page 43 - AIT1222_E-Paper

F rom a technical and artistic, functional and design point of view, rope and net catch rocks weighing one and a half tonnes moving at 90 kilometres per hour, to fine
constructions have enormous potential. Please give us an insight into the
dust traps for dust grains with a diameter of ten micrometres. And then there are the
whole range of your profession. constructions for extraordinary ball catch nets like the 21,000-cubic-metre installati-
To this day, I myself am often still surprised by the variety and range of our work. The ons of TopGolf or smaller applications, for example for baseball matches.
more unusual and multi-layered the request, the more I enjoy it. In all our projects,
we are driven by the quest for intelligent material minimisation and durability. In the r In what ways have your rope and net constructions evolved over the decades
first few years, we focused on developing the technical boundary conditions for the in terms of material, locking devices or spans?
steel cable net that I co-invented, from planning and production to optimising the in- Over the years, we have acquired extensive knowledge of materials and expanded it
stallation. Nets are either used as structural elements such as fall protection, façade with the expertise gained from every project we worked on. With new areas of ap-
greening or partitions, or they form independent supporting structures such as our plication – such as accessible nets – new types of nets usually emerged. We are de-
large zoo enclosures and aviaries. What all projects have in common are extremely velopers, designers and structural engineers all at once, and this requires a holistic
high safety requirements. For all details, we have to anticipate the possible stresses understanding of areas as diverse as materials research and testing, production
and strains and develop durable solutions – without compromising on lightness. planning, manufacturing, fastening technology, assembly planning and mainten-
ance. As we have expanded into other areas of technology, we have also obtained
r In the next step, you added installations that could be used interactively ... several patents. One example is the lightweight photovoltaics with electricity-gene-
Yes, later we created walk-in installations – a completely new field with completely rating foils that we developed.
different requirements. These are usually spectacular installations, such as at the
2015 EXPO in Milan, in the Grindelwald Gorge in Switzerland or now at the Jewel en- r Is there a dream project that you would like to do?
tertainment and retail complex at Changi Airport in Singapore. Despite all the thrills: Of course I envision projects that I would still like to implement. For one thing, I
safety is our top priority here, too! So before the official opening, each of our clim- would like to plan and implement a labyrinth of freely spanned net tunnels and net
th
bable nets is tested and certified according to the European children’s playground levels between skyscrapers on the 50 floor or even higher up. This could be done in
standard. In the meantime, I myself have also received training in playground te- New York, Dubai or Tokyo. And then – even more utopian – I’d like to work with the
sting, which helps a lot with our latest research project, “Learning Space in Motion”. ESA to develop catch nets for collecting satellite debris in space and supervise the as-
In this project, we as part of a research network are investigating to what extent ac- sembly on site – while whizzing around the Earth at 23,000 kilometres per hour.
cessible nets in schools and classrooms are conducive to learning. In the first preli-
minary projects, we have received a lot of approval and enthusiasm from both the r What's the nicest compliment you've ever received for your work?
pupils and the teaching staff, and we are very excited about the research results. Our At the age of over 80, after a lengthy meeting in our office, Frei Otto thanked us for
safety nets, with which we cover a wide range of tasks and functions, make comple- allowing him to learn something. He didn't say that out of politeness. From my point
tely different demands. These range from rockfall protection nets, which are able to of view, there is no greater compliment in the world of lightweight construction!

!
:
s!:air
s
a
i
r
t
h
i
w
c
e
L
Leicht wie eine Brise
i
s
e
B
r
i
e
e
i
e
n
u
f
r
l
a
u
t
d
i
v
k
t
n
d
e
u
p
r
i
a
s
Transparent, atmungsaktiv und luftdurchlässig –
–
g
T
h
s
r
c
n
s
l
ä
m
n
,
t
s
t
n
g
u
a
a
u
D
i
D
s s7:air ist der neue Drehstuhl im leichten Design. .
s
h
l
e
s
h
g
e
t
n
c
a
i
e
r
e
u
l
e
i
r
e
s
h
i
i
n
t
n
7
d
:
r
t
m
e
m
s
a
s
n
t
h
o
p
t
u
a
g
o
c
n
u
Ergonomisch und automatisch passt er r
E
h
d
i
t
i
c
s
r
m
s
e
o
a
n
a
r
c
h
d
sich dem Nutzer an. .
s
i
e
t
z
e
u
m
N
s!dus.com