2003 DuPont Benedictus Award® Honorable Mention (6)

"This is a great example of where laminated glass can be slender and stiff, yet still provide amazing structural strength." "Glass and steel are both used well in this project." "This project reinforces the connection of the city with water. A pool of water spills over an inverted glass and metal shell. The entry into the pavilion uses laminated glass to create a beautiful lighting effect. It´s a very simple concept but one that must have been technically challenging." "This project could only have been realized by using the stiffness of laminated glass to bear the pressure of the overhead pond. The concept is pretty cool." -------- "This project says you can realize the power of your ideas." Haarlemmermeer, the area in which Schiphol Airport (a major European hub) is located, was host to the Floriade World Horticultural Exhibition in 2002. Asymptote won an international design competition to design the main host pavilion of Haarlemmermeer. With a nod to the Northern European tradition of garden pavilions, a major design objective of this project was to reflect the contemporary and growing urban environment of the town itself in glass, instead of in stone or wood, reflecting Asymptote´s interest in new digital design technologies. Hani Rashid of Asymptote says: "Our brief was to create a permanent work of architecture for the fast growing town of Haarlemmermeer, forming a kind of modern-day ´port of urbanism´ in Europe, a place dominated by the surreal culture of Schiphol airport. The town´s territory, set within an artificial lake, was created 150 years ago as a polder carved out of the sea. The concept of reclaiming part of the land to form this place as a ground for a permanent pavilion prompted us to push the technological parameters of the envelope and structure, thereby allowing us to produce an ´architecture of the future´." Water has always been important to this locale and to The Netherlands in general with its seafaring history. This is acknowledged in the continually streaming surface of water that shrouds the building, flowing into pools that are supported by a large expanded laminated glass 6 x 12 m2 ´overhead belly´. Here the water cascades over the digitally inspired forms of Hydra-Pier. The architects confirm that the structural strength of laminated glass enabled the design to be completed without the heavy use of mullions or frames. This enabled Asymptote to realize a design that they wanted to appear as "mysterious, enigmatic, poetic and fascinating" to visitors, while also showcasing state-of-the-art technologies in building materials and design. Visitors inside Hydra-Pier can visually perceive the cascading water as though they are looking out through the vast cockpit of a ship or airplane. An aesthetic effect of unusual transparency is achieved through the use of laminated glass. Asymptote says that one of their design goals was to create "a texture mapping, as the water cascades over the glass canopy, leaving a beautiful trace below of light and shadows somewhere between real and digital." Hani Rashid is professor of architectural design utilizing digital technologies at New York´s Columbia University School of Architecture. Hydra-Pier is one of Asymptote´s first projects to be realized. He says: "Too many projects look great via computer renderings but tend to disappoint in reality. So it was very satisfying for us to be able to complete a building that combines contemporary design theory and state-of-the-art computing expertise, particularly regarding glass curvature, and that also speaks volumes to visitors about the future of architectural design and building. "Because we used laminated glass we were able to engineer surfaces that continue to be as structurally strong in glass as they are in metal. The structural strength of laminated glass was essential to the aesthetic dynamic of Hydra-Pier. This project says you can realize the power of your ideas. The realized project tells the story - not the rendering!" The interior surfaces and laminated glass are also ´wired for new media´, according to Asymptote. In the future, video images could be projected onto the laminated glass using digital technologies. The structural engineering firm for Hydra-Pier was Octatube of Delft, The Netherlands. CEO of Octatube, Dr. Mick Eekhout is also professor of Component Development at the faculty of Architecture at Delft University of Technology. Eekhout said: "The way the architects wanted the water to cascade over the two glass roofs results in a pool of water of about 1.2 m deep - a terrific load for overhead glass to bear. As an engineer, it is still a bit unreal to me that I can walk underneath a huge lake of water supported by a laminated glass skylight and still feel safe, but this is true in the case with Hydra-Pier! "The roof initially was conceived entirely of glass but was then modified into a structure consisting of aluminum with a flat laminated glass plane and a suspended water pond. The water pond with its 1,200 kg/m2 loading was a new structural glass concept conceived and realized for the first time worldwide by Octatube, as far as we know. With the architects, we developed this new concept in frameless glass panels. "Now, visitors can walk underneath the water belly as though they are walking underneath a lifted polder lake. For Dutch people with our genetic respect for polders or dams, this is particularly impressive! The lake upside down! "For overhead glazing there was no other option to using laminated glass, particularly when the loading was as high as that in the water pond. The polygonal glass belly is composed of 12 + 12 + 4 mm glass panels with PVB interlayers with a point-supported structure for maximal transparency. For the rest of the main building we used flat roof laminated glass panels (6 x 6 x 2 mm) for safety." The third application of laminated glass in Hydra-Pier is in the east and west façade windows. For these, large flat glass panes were laminated by Octatube to flat laminated glass (6 + 6 + 2 mm) incorporating PVB and then curved in a cold bending procedure to fit the fluid design of the building, using a frameless glazing support system with point fixings only. Octatube´s Eekhout believes that this is the world´s first application of cold bent point supported laminated glass. He adds that the glass had to be laminated also as a safety precaution for the installation crew during the on-site bending, when no breakage occurred. -------- Lise Anne Couture & Hani Rashid Asymptote Architecture 561 Broadway 5A New York, NY 10012, USA Tel: +1 212 343 7333 Fax: +1 212 343 7099 E-mail: info@asymptote.net www.asymptote-architecture.com with: Mick Eekhout, Octatube Space Structures BV, Rotterdamseweg 200, 2628 AS Delft, The Netherlands, Tel: +31 15 257 1300, Fax: +31 15 262 2300, E-mail: info@octatube.nl, www.octatube.nl Executive architect for the project was Anton Bronsvoort of Arkitektenburo Bronsvoort BNA, Amerongen, The Netherlands Name of project: Hydra-Pier, Haarlemmermeer Pavilion, Floriade Exhibition 2002, Haarlemmermeer, The Netherlands Architect: Asymptote Architecture, New York Project team: Lise Anne Couture, Hani Rashid Client: Public Buildings Association, Haarlemmermeer, The Netherlands Engineering firm: Octatube Space Structures, Delft, The Netherlands Laminator: Glasid AG, Essen, Germany Completion: March 2002 Photos: Christian Richters