ZDF Television Centre
Mainz, Germany
Year:
1997
Material:
ETFE foil cushion
Area:
1,200 m²
Client:
ZDF, Mainz, Germany.
Architect:
Alfred Speer & Partners, Frankfurt / Main, Germany
Engineering:
Bollinger & Grohmann, Frankfurt / Main, Germany
Whatever The Weather The Show Must Go On.
The television garden site with an area of 1,200 square meters was roofed over with a highly transparent ETFE featuring a translucency of 95 percent. The air supply of the cushions is weather controlled and thus adaptable to the prevailing weather conditions.
In order to achieve the light floating character of the membrane roofing, a group of building planning firms developed a steel construction consisting of six pylons, from which a steel grid is suspended. The grid contains 47 compartments, 44 of which are ETFE filled. Their structure and transparency create the illusion of being in the open. The sophisticated concept was achieved due to close cooperation of Architects, Engineers and Hightex.
Another application where Hightex’s position as a world leader in creating tensile structures and fabric architecture in tensioned membranes such as PTFE, PVC, and ETFE is realised.
