In the ring: a normally cacotopic building type given grace by thoughtful handling of materials and scale.Multi-storey car parks are a difficult building type, particularly the circular kind. For a start, round buildings are hard to insert into the urban fabric, then the scale needed by cars tends to be different from those of buildings which serve human beings. And they tend to be full of stinking stinking having an intrinsic fetid smell. stinking elder sambucuspubens. stinking hellebore helleborusfoetidus. stinking iris irisfoetidissima. petrol fumes fumes odorous gases and other volatile materials; inhalation of irritating fumes causes coughing and, if sufficiently severe, irreversible pulmonary edema. and grease. The one built by Ingenhoven, Overdiek & Partner at the Burda media park near Offenburg avoids most of these problems. It was commissioned by a publishing house so that staff could be brought together from several different locations. An almost rural undeveloped area at the edge of the little city was available, and the architects made a five-storey 60m diameter building that can accommodate 474 cars. Entrance is at the lowest level of the site, and two independent helical helical /hel·i·cal/ (hel´i-k'l) spiral (1). hel·i·cal adj. 1. Of or having the shape of a helix; spiral. 2. Having a shape approximating that of a helix. ramps offer ascending and descending Ascending and Descending is a lithograph print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher which was first printed in March 1960. The original print measures 14" x 11 1/4”. The lithograph depicts a large building roofed by a never-ending staircase. car routes. Ramps and their surrounding walls are of in-situ concrete, forming a solid drumlike core that stiffens and stabilizes the whole. From the drum, the car-park floors made of prefabricated pre·fab·ri·cate tr.v. pre·fab·ri·cat·ed, pre·fab·ri·cat·ing, pre·fab·ri·cates 1. To manufacture (a building or section of a building, for example) in advance, especially in standard sections that can be easily shipped and concrete elements 11.25 degrees in arc are carried on steel beams that extend to the perimeter, where they are propped on steel columns. What principally persuaded the jury to give the building a commendation was the elegant handling of the external walls. The veil-like facade is of round Oregon pine sections suspended on stainless-steel cables to which the poles are fixed by specially made clips. Horizontal wind movements are resisted at each floor level by holding the cables with stainless brackets. The roof is made in a similar way to the walls, with the cables allowed to adopt a catenary curve between the core and the outer steel compression ring. So poles and cables form a sort of enclosing pergola pergola Garden walk or terrace typically formed by two rows of columns or posts roofed with an open framework of beams and cross rafters over which plants are trained. Its purpose is to provide a foundation on which climbing plants can be viewed and to give shade. . Eventually, the timber will weather to a colour akin to the grey of the concrete, which will of course gradually change with the passage of time. The design makes the whole structure permeable permeable /per·me·a·ble/ (per´me-ah-b'l) not impassable; pervious; permitting passage of a substance. per·me·a·ble adj. That can be permeated or penetrated, especially by liquids or gases. to the winds. This is a parking garage that does not stink, and it makes a graceful, delicate contribution to the edge of the town. RELATED ARTICLE: Architect Ingenhoven Overdiek & Partner, Dusseldorf Project team Christoph Ingenhoven, Barbara Bruder, Jan Quadbeck, Martin Reuter Photographs H. G. Esch |
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