Exhibition and Visitor Center for New Technologies

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Greg Lynn, Michael McInturf & Martin Treberspurg


Project Facts:

Project Name:Exhibition and Visitor Center for New Technologies
Location:Schwechat/Vienna, Austria
Surroundings:the site is adjacent to the highway leading from to Bratislava and the Vienna airport approximately 15km from the center of Vienna
Zoning:the site is zoned for heavy industry as the site is on the grounds of the OMV oil company's refinery
Client:OMV Aktiengesellschaft, The Austrian National Mineral Oil Processing Company
Program:commercial permanent and travelling exhibition hall and experimental energy house
Construction System: glue laminated primary structural members using computer aided manufacturing, clad in zinc standing seam roofing with a wood plank interior finish. hydrogen gas energy generation using photovoltaic electrolyser production of hydrogen gas. In the interior screen of tensile fabric supported by tubular secondary structure.

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Perspective View front
Northeast with Site
Perspective View front
Northwest with Site
Perspective View front
Southeast with Site

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Roof PlanLongitudal Section

Project Description:

The project is a low energy building that uses an experimental energy source:; hydrogen gas. The house is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell that generates electrical energy, pure water and heat through the controlled combination of hydrogen an oxygen.

The building serves as a public relations educational facility for the public who visit the OMV refinery in schwechat, austria. The interior of the building is separated into two zones by a translucent fabric upon which computer animations video sequences and still images are projected. This rear projection system is supported by scaffolding upon which the projectors can be moved allowing an extremely flexible and smooth exhibition space.

Behind the screen the mechanical systems of the house are aligned so that when the lightning behind the screen is switched on the projection screen becomes transparent making the experimental energy system of the house visible to the exhibition visitor.

The design of the building utilized state of the art computer simulation software to model the solar vault throughout the year for the alignment and shape of all shading devices and the photovoltaic cells. The north facade of the building was shaped through the simulation of the automobile movement on the highway. The notion of the cars was used to sweep a series of surfaces that reveal the interior of the building as a sequence when viewed at speed from the roadway. These forces were translated into the surfaces through the construction of a flexible skeketon system that responded to the forces exerted on the site dynamically.

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Sun and Shadow Studies of an A-frame shaped primitive reacting as a whole to the impact of the sun which is simulated as a deforming force system.Studies of Controlling Geometry Systems which are attached to the simulation of the automaobile movement on the highway situated north of the site, in order to study patterns of alignment towards the observer movement along the same highway.

Description of Project at Exhibition:

1:75 metric scale model of the whole architecture with site information material: building parts resin milled with stereolithography laser technology; site model in solid alluminum cut to size with Lasercut Technology.

Additional presentation of several computer animation on TV-monitors, showing the design process using cutting edge animation- and dynamics computer software.

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Sun and Shadow Studies in topview with site information
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Controlling Geometry with attached L-frame structure for studying surface generations sweeping the whole motion over time.Portrait of Surface Sweeps by using lines attached to the same controlling geometry generating a surface as a continuous sweep.

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1) Site Plan2) Roof Plan3) Plan View
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4) Cross Section5) Cross Section6) Longitudal Section
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7) North Facade8) South Facade9) East and West Facade
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10) 11) 10, 11, 12) Systematic Drawings for Evaluation of Unfolded Surfaces and Structures

Client:

Austrian Oil Company OMV AG, Schwechat/Vienna, Austria

Senator D.I Walter Tauscher
Director of Research and Development
D.I. Kurt Pollak
Research and Development Marketing
Project Manager Phase 1
D.I. Dr. Kurt Heidler
Project Manager Phase 2
Bmst. Ing Anton Kellner
Construction Manager
D.I. Dr. Alexander Buchsbaum
D.I. Dr. Dieter Karner

Architects:

Architekt Martin Treberspurg and Partners, Vienna

Martin Treberspurg
Andrew Whiteside
m.FORM
Michael McInturf
Greg Lynn
Andreas Froech
Phillip Anzalone
Ulrika Karlsson
Stephanie Bayard
Cindy Wilson
Matt Jogan
Jefferson Ellinger
Heather Roberge

Consultants:

Structural Engineering:
D.I. Dr. Richard Fritze, Vienna
FTL Happold, Bath Neil Billett
FTL Happold, New York Craig Schwitter
Eddie Pugh
Mechanical Engineering:
Dr. Peter Schuetz, Vienna
Mechanical Engineering H2/Solar Components:
SIEMENS AG Austria
Ing. Franz Daberger
D.I. Michael Friess
Landscape Architecture:
D.I. Arch. Maria Auboeck, Vienna
Bernhardgasse 21
A-1070 Vienna, Austria
Image Processing:
Finley Digital, New York
Mark Paulvin
Jerry Stern
Stereolithography Technology:
New Jersey Institut of Technology, Newark NJ
Center for Manufacturing Systems
Christopher Wahlers
Animation and Dynamics Hardware and software:
Alias\Wavefront & Silicon Graphics Ltd., Toronto

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