Bamboo cage: enveloped in a skin of bamboo, this car park for Leipzig Zoo connects with nature.Founded in 1878, Leipzig's zoo is one of the oldest and most important zoological gardens zoological garden or zoo, public or private park where living animals are kept for exhibition and study. The menageries and aviaries of China, Egypt, and Rome were famous in ancient times. in Europe. As well as its work with threatened species, it is also a popular place for public recreation, being close to the city centre. The zoo needed a new car park to replace an existing one and wanted a building that would act as a landmark to the zoo gardens, yet also make the most of a modest budget. Local firm Hentrich-Petschnigg rose to the challenge, enveloping en·vel·op tr.v. en·vel·oped, en·vel·op·ing, en·vel·ops 1. To enclose or encase completely with or as if with a covering: "Accompanying the darkness, a stillness envelops the city" a five-storey structure in a lightweight skin of vertical bamboo bamboo, plant of the family Gramineae (grass family), chiefly of warm or tropical regions, where it is sometimes an extremely important component of the vegetation. It is most abundant in the monsoon area of E Asia. poles that diffuse light, soften the building mass and express a literal and metaphoric connection with the natural world. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Car parks (as Peter Blundell Jones Peter Blundell Jones AA Dipl MA (Cantab) is a British architect, historian, academic and critic. He trained as an architect at the Architectural Association school, London and has held academic positions at the University of Cambridge and London South Bank University. observes more trenchantly on p81) are a deeply maligned ma·lign tr.v. ma·ligned, ma·lign·ing, ma·ligns To make evil, harmful, and often untrue statements about; speak evil of. adj. 1. Evil in disposition, nature, or intent. 2. and malign building type, being little more than stacked floor plates, usually designed to lowest common denominator low·est common denominator n. 1. See least common denominator. 2. a. The most basic, least sophisticated level of taste, sensibility, or opinion among a group of people. b. principles. Yet they are an inescapable aspect of modern life, as car use in cities continues to increase. In Leipzig car drivers can, for once, take heart. Five levels of parking (four above and one below ground), with spaces for 527 vehicles, are efficiently and elegantly housed in Hentrich-Petschnigg's bamboo-clad car cage. Around the two spiralling access ramps, walls wiggle and curve, like an Aalto vase, the slim bamboo poles rippling along the exterior. Construction is remarkably and necessarily simple, based on a 5m square modular steel grid, which had the dual advantages of speed and economy. The steel skeleton is stabilised by the spiralling ramps and by a concrete lift and stair tower on the west side overlooking the main entrance to the zoo. Here, the bamboo gives way to full-height glazing Glazing The application of finely ground glass, or glass-forming materials, or a mixture of both, to a ceramic body and heating (firing) to a temperature where the material or materials melt, forming a coating of glass on the surface of the ware. , revealing the vertical circulation. A secondary steel structure supports the bamboo facade and narrow timber pedestrian walkways that run around the perimeter of each floor. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Apart from its obvious ornamental qualities, the bamboo also functions as a protective railing and screen, admitting light and air, but reducing sound. Poles with a diameter of between 100 and 120mm were selected, leaving a 75mm gap. Each pole is fixed by an adjustable brace screwed to the flanges of the secondary steel structure. Set against the precisely engineered steel, the organic quality of the bamboo generates a delicious tension between nature and technology, casting flickering shadows around the parking floors. Though bamboo is rarely used in Europe, it does not look out of place here, seductively se·duc·tive adj. Tending to seduce; alluring: "his sad and fastidious but ever seductive Irish voice" John Fowles. transforming this most mundane of building types. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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