German-Chinese House, EXPO 2010 Shanghai, China
The campaign "Germany and China – Moving Ahead Together" during the 2010 World Exposition in Shanghai provided an architectural highlight: the German-Chinese House, an example of a building for the future. Munich-based artist Markus Heinsdorff, working together with MUDI, the German architectural practice based in Shanghai, created an impressive symbiosis of nature and high-tech through his combination of the natural material bamboo for the loadbearing structure and modern synthetic materials for the façades and roof. The clients for the building were the German Foreign Office and the Goethe Institute China.
The pavilion is a self-supporting, two-storey construction made from giant bamboo. The loadbearing structure consists of 8 m long bamboo canes from southern China with a diameter of up to 23 cm. Inside the building, glued laminated bamboo beams up to 6 m long support the upper floor without the need for any intermediate columns.
In total, seele covertex planned and installed 707 m2 of high-tech synthetic materials for this pavilion. The roof surface, 264 m2 in area, consists of a special PVC membrane that spans across the loadbearing structure without folds or creases. This design ensures good illumination inside the building, and its lightness characterises the atmosphere of the interior.
The pavilion is a self-supporting, two-storey construction made from giant bamboo. The loadbearing structure consists of 8 m long bamboo canes from southern China with a diameter of up to 23 cm. Inside the building, glued laminated bamboo beams up to 6 m long support the upper floor without the need for any intermediate columns.
In total, seele covertex planned and installed 707 m2 of high-tech synthetic materials for this pavilion. The roof surface, 264 m2 in area, consists of a special PVC membrane that spans across the loadbearing structure without folds or creases. This design ensures good illumination inside the building, and its lightness characterises the atmosphere of the interior.
For the façades, the bamboo is combined with a single layer of ETFE film. It is the high transparency of this film that is responsible for the open and diaphanous look of the building. White sunshading panels are spanned between the façade members in a regular pattern to lend the building a particular dynamic.
The pavilion was erected in just one month. Its modular design and lightweight materials mean that the entire construction can be dismantled after the EXPO and re-erected on another site. That makes the German-Chinese House the most sustainable pavilion of the entire World Exposition.
The pavilion was erected in just one month. Its modular design and lightweight materials mean that the entire construction can be dismantled after the EXPO and re-erected on another site. That makes the German-Chinese House the most sustainable pavilion of the entire World Exposition.
