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Interior of the Mannheim Multihalle in Mannheim, Germany built in 1975, spanning 85 meters: a latticed shell

From:
http://shells.princeton.edu/Mann2.html

Jarred Mihalik, Melody Tan, and Sekai Zengeza write:
"In 1975, the Mannheim Garden Pavilion (the figure shown here) was constructed as part of the Mannheim Bundesgartenschau, which can be translated as 'Federal Garden Exhibition'.

" [In the early 1970s] the timber lattice gridshell formwork was an innovative idea, but one still rare in practice. Thus, very little was known about the structural behavior of these shells, and how that behavior would affect the materials used in the project. The original structural engineers contracted for the Mannheim Multihalle resigned after stating that the structural calculations were too difficult. The clients then hired Ove Arup and Partners (the forefather of Arup Engineering) to make the calculations involving the weight and shape of the multihalle. Other important contributors to the Mannheim Multihalle's construction and design included Dr. Ewald Bubner (an experienced consultant in the form finding of gridshells and a partner of Frei Otto), structural engineers Edmund "Ted" Happold, and Ian Liddell, and general contractor Wilhelm Poppensiecker.

"What is a Gridshell? Put simply, a gridshell is a structure made of individual elements that form a regular grid spanning the area the structure covers. A gridshell is but one form of a shell structure, which can also be made from concrete and steel. Their efficiency and thinness come from the fact that they derive their strength from their geometric shape.8 Shells can have multiple layers and different ways of joining materials at nodes. However, common to all these forms is a thickness that is extremely small compared to the overall dimensions of the structure. For example, the Mannheim Multihalle spans 85 meters and contains 7400 m2 of roof area, but its shell thickness is less than half a meter."

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