Copenhagen Islands

by | 27 Jul 2020 | Design, Installations & Events

Parkipelago

Copenhagen Islands

Marshall Blecher & Studio Fokstrot

About

The project intro­duces a new arche­type in urban space to the city’s harbour; a “parki­pe­lago” of floa­ting islands, open and free to be used by an incre­asing number of boaters, fishermen, kaya­kers, star­ga­zers and swim­mers.

The islands rein­tro­duce wilder­ness and whimsey to the rapidly gentri­fying harbour, with endemic plants, trees and grasses above and anchor points below provi­ding a habitat for birds and insects, seaweeds, fish and molluscs. the islands offer a constantly chan­ging, gene­rous, green space in the centre of the city. The project also hints at a new type of climate resi­lient urba­nism, inher­ently flexible in its use and only using sustain­ably sourced and recy­cled mate­rials.

Construction

The islands will be cons­tructed by hand in the boat­buil­ding yards in the south habour of Copen­hagen using tradi­tional wooden boat buil­ding tech­ni­ques. They will be moved seaso­nally between unde­r­uti­lised and newly devel­oped parts of the harbour, cata­ly­sing life and acti­vity.

The first proto­type island ‘CPH-Ø1’ was laun­ched in 2018 and became a popular feature in the harbour, moving from place to place, hosting part of a photo­graphy exhi­bi­tion, a series of talks and many seaside picnics. The pro­totype will be followed by three more islands to be laun­ched in 2020, CPH-Ø1, CPH-Ø2 & CPH-Ø3 with plans for even more in the follo­wing years.

Awards

Copen­hagen Islands was awarded the taipei inter­na­tional design awards for public space and the award for social design, It was a fina­list in the Beazley design prize at the London Design Museum and has just been announced as a fina­list in the Danish Design Prize.

Copen­hagen islands is a not for profit initia­tive started by austra­lian archi­tect Marshall Blecher and Danish Design studio Fokstrot, it is supported by køben­havns kommune, by og havn and den gode havneliv.

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Project data

Design

Marshall Blecher
Studio Fokstrot

Illustratons

Airflix (Aerials)
MIR (Visua­li­sa­tions)

Author

Marshall Blecher

Opening

2018 / 2020

Videos

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Himmelstropfen

by | 22 Jun 2020 | Installations & Events

Well fertilized landmark

Himmelstropfen in Sauerland

Christoph Hesse Architects

About

On May 22nd, these three small pavi­lions were built on the occa­sion of the Inter­na­tional Day of Biodi­ver­sity.  

This year’s slogan by the United Nations “our solu­tions are in nature” empha­sized “hope, soli­da­rity and the importance of working toge­ther at all levels to build a future of life in harmony with nature”. (Quote: United Nations Envi­ron­ment Programme, Mont­real, Canada, 2020)

Referinghausen

The place chosen for the project is located in the high­land area of Sauer­land, in the green center of Germany, along the trail Heiden­strasse, an over 1,000-year-old trade route between Leipzig and Cologne that led also to Sant­iago de Compos­tela in Spain.

On the highest point of a hill, the pavi­lions become a small land­mark for the area, as well as a view­point from where one can enjoy the land­scape.

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Piling frame

Toge­ther with the local commu­nity, various types of grass and flowers from the region have been planted around rein­for­cing steel mesh. During the follo­wing years, the plants will grow up, even­tually cove­ring the struc­ture comple­tely and crea­ting natural walls. The instal­la­tion serves the biodi­ver­sity and as a resting place for visi­tors.

Fotos & Plans

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Compa­nies involved & Links

Architect

Chris­toph Hesse Archi­tects
Korbach/Berlin

Client

Orts­ge­mein­schaft Refe­ring­hausen

Photos & Text

Chris­toph Hesse Archi­tects
Korbach/Berlin

Address

Refe­ring­hausen
D — Hoch­sauer­land

Opening

May 2020

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Floating Piers

by | 18 Jun 2020 | Installations & Events

Walking on water

The Floating Piers on Lake Iseo

Christo und Jeanne-Claude

16 days in 2016

Over 1,200,000 people visited Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Floa­ting Piers during its 16 days from June 18 through July 3, 2016.

The tempo­rary work of art featured fabric-covered piers 3 kilo­me­ters in length, cons­tructed across the water of Italy’s Lake Iseo, and continued along 2.5 kilo­me­ters of pede­strian streets in Sulzano and Pesc­hiera Maraglio.

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For a short time only

The Floa­ting Piers was first conceived in 1970. Christo and Jeanne-Claude later found Lake Iseo to be the most inspi­ring loca­tion to realize this project.

The lake’s water, the land­scape, and the commu­ni­ties around it have all been part of The Floa­ting Piers. An important part of this project is the tempo­rary part, it has a nomadic quality – this is why after 16 days it was gone.

Free and accessible

The Floa­ting Piers were free and acces­sible to the public, no tickets or reser­va­tions were required. Local autho­ri­ties requested The Floa­ting Piers close at night to accom­mo­date the commu­nity of Monte Isola’s sani­ta­tion needs.

On average over 72,000 people a day from around the world expe­ri­enced The Floa­ting Piers and explored the hosting commu­ni­ties around Lake Iseo, which offered food and drinks, and places for hikes where visi­tors could take in diffe­rent vantage points of the piers.

Hotels, restau­rants, bars, and shops recorded asto­nis­hing atten­dance, and images of Lake Iseo were broad­cast on the major inter­na­tional networks. For the small island it’s been a chall­enge people enthu­si­a­sti­cally met as this expe­ri­ence will have lasting impact on the future of the tourist industry of the area.

Success and perspectives

The Floa­ting Piers has been a great success. The project provided new perspec­tives for inha­bi­tants around the lake. It allowed to redis­cover the surroun­dings and the value of the lake’s inner beauty, which can some­times be unde­re­sti­mated. The Lake Iseo area hosted over a million visi­tors, offe­ring an unfor­gettable artistic expe­ri­ence and allo­wing people to learn about a hidden corner of Italy. The atten­dance of visi­tors and all the invest­ments brought by The Floa­ting Piers bene­fits the local economy.

Christo financed the entire cost of The Floa­ting Piers, appro­xi­m­ately 18,000,000 Euros, inclu­ding the assembly, instal­la­tion, main­ten­ance, secu­rity, and removal of the work of art. The artist does not accept spon­sor­ship.

Over 1,000 people were employed by The Floa­ting Piers. All project workers were paid, there were no volun­teers, inclu­ding manu­fac­tu­rers, engi­neers, buil­ding contrac­tors, divers, pier moni­tors, life­guards, boat captains, and secu­rity personnel. The majo­rity of the moni­tors, which provided round-the-clock coverage on the piers, were local Italian resi­dents from the Lombardy region.

Materials and Removal

After the projet was finished, mate­rials were indus­tri­ally recy­cled for use in a variety of appli­ca­tions. All compon­ents of The Floa­ting Piers have been removed over the course of three months, leaving Lake Iseo „as if we were never here.”

 

The Floa­ting Piers included:

  • 220,000 high-density poly­ethy­lene cubes and pins, manu­fac­tured by four diffe­rent compa­nies in Nort­hern Italy, used to create a modular floa­ting dock system on Lake Iseo.
  • 100,000 square meters of nylon fabric and 80,000 square meters of felt to cover 3 kilo­me­ters over the piers on water and 2.5 kilo­me­ters of pede­strian streets. The yellow-dahlia fabric as well as the felt underlay will be re-manu­fac­tured and used in the produc­tion of new fabric products. The fabric may also be ground into a filler and used in such products as carpet under­lay­ment.
  • 200 concrete dead-weight anchors, weig­hing 5.5 tons each, speci­fi­cally desi­gned for the project. The anchors, used under water to hold the piers in place, will all be carefully removed from the lakebed and milled/shredded for filler and indus­trial re-use.

We will miss projects like this one very much.

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Compa­nies involved & Links

Artist

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Address

Monte Isola
I‑25050 Brecia

Photos

Wolf­gang Volz

Author

Johannes Bühl­be­cker
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KUFA-Kreisel

by | 2 Apr 2020 | Installations & Events, Outdoor

From 0 to 1

The KUFA-Roundabout in Lyss

​

Influencer

An enormous record player has turned a new round­about in the Swiss region of Lyss (located between Biel and Bern) into an inter­na­tional attrac­tion.

The project’s initiator was the neigh­bou­ring concert-orga­ni­sing body KUFA. The player is not only very well suited due to its round shape but also creates a closeness to its surroun­dings as symbolic as it is funny.
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LP of the week

The easiest ideas are of course often the best. The turn­table is as circular as a round­about, while vinyl achieves a coherent and emotional rela­tion to music in general and to the KUFA in parti­cular.

Yet it was a long journey from its incep­tion to imple­men­ta­tion. KUFA, the Gehri Aarberg cons­truc­tion firm, the Lyss county council and the depart­ment of civil engi­nee­ring held their breath for four years, to ulti­m­ately set in motion and execute their project.

Along­side the plan­ning and appr­oval, the works them­selves were not quite a walk in the park, with one example seeing volun­teers busy for a full week, with atta­ching the approx. 800 metal plates to the record player.

You sexy thing

Since its inau­gu­ra­tion in May of 2019 the KUFA round­about has been cele­brated on social media. The drone video quickly received over 150,000 views – could any traffic faci­li­tator keep up with that?

At the same time, one may well assume that “the sexiest traffic round­about on earth“ is able to draw a smile from drivers too.

33 ⅓

You might also say: The KUFA round­about is the right blend of func­tion, shape and reco­gni­tion value, with both the council and spon­sors thus bene­fit­ting equally.

What the turn­table is still missing, however, is a tone arm. It has not (to date) been included, for secu­rity reasons and due to a scar­city in funds. It may still happen, when the speed is turned down to 33⅓.

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Compa­nies involved & Links

Client

Gemeinde Lyss
Maarkt­platz 6
CH — 3250 Lyss

Opening

2019

Idea & Design

Kultur­fa­brik KUFA Lyss
Werdtstrasse 17
CH — 3250 Lyss

Gehri AG Aarberg
Seiden­gasse 7
CH — 3270 Aarberg

Text

Johannes Bühl­be­cker
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Photos

Kultur­fa­brik KUFA Lyss, Thomas Hässig (Drohne)
Gehri AG, Marc Gehri

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Chemin des Carrières

by | 1 Apr 2020 | Installations & Events, Outdoor

Rust never sleeps

Chemin des Carrières in Alsace

Reiulf Ramstad Architekter

About

Chemin des Carri­ères, the Quar­ries’ Track, is a lace undu­la­ting in the land­scape, an invi­ta­tion to travel as our ambi­tion behind the recon­quest of the Rosheim-St Nabor railway in Alsace, France.

History

Ominous, some­times hidden, the vestiges of the railway still mark the reading of the site. The desire to create a route to serve the quar­ries had to adapt to the undu­la­ting land­scapes of the sub-Vosges hills and the very form of the tracing tells the history of the land­scape and the men. The journey to discover forgotten land­scapes or to take a diffe­rent view on ever­yday land­scapes is addressed to both local users and tourists. Like the old track that offered a dual func­tion (indus­trial and passenger trans­port), the route has a double voca­tion where the func­tional must rub shoulders with the imagi­nary of travel.

Five chapters

Along the 11km path goes a story, which the stops split into five chap­ters of diffe­rent sequences of land­scapes offe­ring varied universes and high­lighting remar­kable sites. Unusual elements punc­tuate the way, aiming at awake­ning the visi­tor’s senses, and water is encoun­tered repea­tedly.
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Rosheim

Rosheim tells the story of the past. Realized by intert­wined circles in corten steel, the pavi­lion has a laby­rin­thine character and play with irre­gular concave and convex inte­rior, which the visi­tors are free to roam. The train tracks are conserved in that area, benches are built, and openings are created to open or close the sculp­ture to chosen views of the surroun­ding land­scape allo­wing for viewing, seating – refle­xion and contem­pla­tion.
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Boersch

Boersch tells the story of water. The river, which histo­ri­cally allowed connec­tion to the world and tells about the true clean­li­ness of a place. It is a dynamic element in the land­scape, running to the ocean. We enlarge the riverbed and build a large open space amphi­theater to access the water.

Leonardsau

Leonardsau tells the story of the land. After a long green tunnel, two large corten steel plates amplify the opening effect at the end of the forest corridor to the open land­scape, embo­dying a gate and opening a perspec­tive towards Mont St-Odile, which deve­lops the idea of disco­very.

Ottrott

Ottrott tells the story of travel. Former train station, the stop mate­ria­lizes the history of the railway and high­light the presence of the heri­tage (balance, bridge, crane, pump…). In a fabric of housing buil­dings, the reser­voir, symbo­li­zing water, and concrete crossings connect housing to histo­rical elements and land­scape.

Saint Nabor

Saint Nabor tells the story of luck. Closed for years and ongoing a “rena­tu­ra­li­sa­tion” process, the quar­ries symbo­lize the recon­quest of the vege­ta­tion on a former indus­trial site. On one of the highest plat­form created by the machine, will the traveler discover the most spec­ta­cular work: a promon­tory in corten steel offe­ring a wide view on the valley of Rosheim and the plain of Alsace. From this view­point inspired by a four-leaf clover, the visitor will feel lucky to enjoy the view of such a beau­tiful terri­tory.

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Compa­nies involved & Links

Client

Commun­auté de Communes des Portes de Rosheim

Opening

2019

Architects

Reiulf Ramstad Archi­tekter
Sivil­ar­ki­tekter MNAL. ARK + LARK
Jose­fi­nesgt. 7
NOR — 0351 Oslo

Photos

Florent Michel 11h45
96 Avenue de la Répu­blique
F — 75011 Paris

Address

Rue du Neuland
F — 67560 Rosheim

 

Text

Reiulf Ramstad Archi­tekter

Plans

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Hoverbox

by | 29 Mar 2020 | Installations & Events

Cheap Thrills

Hoverbox in Winnipeg

Naice Architecture & Design

Warming Huts

The renowned “Warming Huts Festival” takes place every year in Winnipeg, Canada. This is about tempo­rary resting places on the frozen Red River.

In the winter of 2019 the Hoverbox by Naice Archi­tec­ture & Design was one of the cele­brated winners.

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Warming up, theoretically

So it’s about warming up on a windy lake, which offers a closed ice surface at least during the exhi­bi­tion period from January to March.

A large white box hovers over the ice; in the box, there a people walk about, bide their time, or seemingly hover over the floor. What is happe­ning?

Warming up, practical

The visitor enters a laby­rinth turned upside down by way of one of the two narrow openings leading inward. Corri­dors snake through the body of the buil­ding and end at benches. The visitor wanders around, opti­cally cut off from the outside world, disori­ented, and only perceives the legs and feet of other visi­tors.

Sudden encoun­ters bring stran­gers toge­ther, secret visual cont­acts through holes in the walls next to the benches invite visi­tors to spy on their surroun­dings, diffi­cult to reco­gnize.

A play invol­ving distance and proxi­mity.
VIsit NAICE

Construction

The object is made of a processed wood mate­rial. Steel supports on which the boxes stand are covered in human clot­hing, giving the impres­sion of being other visi­tors.

The box is black on the inside; on the outside it is painted white.

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Compa­nies involved & Links

Photos

Lindsay Reid, Winnipeg

Architects

NAICE archi­tec­ture & design 
GOERZWERK — Goerz­allee 299   
D — 14167  Berlin — Germany

Opening

2019

Text

Johannes Bühl­be­cker
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Infinite Bridge

by | 20 Dec 2019 | Installations & Events, Outdoor

Circle of Life

Infinite Bridge in Aarhus

Gjøde & Partnere Arkitekter

 

A circular bridge?

The Infi­nite Bridge in Aarhus, Denmark’s second-largest city, was desi­gned by Gjøde & Povls­gaard Arki­tekter for the 2015 “Sculp­ture by the Sea” festival.

The bridge takes people nowhere, but it helps to expe­ri­ence the chan­ging land­scape as an endless pano­r­amic compo­si­tion. At the same time, Infi­nite Bridge is a space of social inter­ac­tion with other people expe­ri­en­cing the same panorama.

60 meters

The Infi­nite Bridge has a diameter of 60 meters and is posi­tioned half on the beach and half in the sea. It consists of 60 iden­tical wooden elements placed on steel pillars housed about two meters into the sea floor.

The deck of the bridge rises between one and two meters above the water surface depen­ding on the tide. The curvature of the bridge follows the contours of the land­scape as it sits at the mouth of a small river valley exten­ding into the forest from the beach.

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Connection

The span of the bridge is made of wood, the supporting pillars are made of steel. The archi­tects created a sculp­ture that is all about expe­ri­en­cing the surroun­dings and beco­ming aware of the rela­tion between the city and the magni­fi­cent land­scape of the bay.

In addi­tion to unfol­ding the seaside panorama, the Infi­nite Bridge estab­lishes a connec­tion between the present and the history of the specific site, as it recon­nects the beach to a long forgotten view­point at sea.

History

The bridge touches the landing dock of a previous pier located at the site where people used to arrive in steam­boats from the city to relax and enjoy them­selves. The historic Varna Pavi­lion that sits on the hillside above the beach was a popular desti­na­tion in the scenic land­scape with its terraces, restau­rant and dance­hall. Situated on the edge of the forest facing the sea the pavi­lion was meant to be expe­ri­enced from the landing dock of the pier that no longer exists. The Infi­nite Bridge reestab­lishes this historic connec­tion and offers a new perspec­tive on the rela­tion between the city and the surroun­ding land­scape.

The Infi­nite Bridge is set up from May until October.

What do you think?

Circle of Life (Elton John)

From the day we arrive on the planet
And blin­king, step into the sun
There’s more to be seen than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done

Some say eat or be eaten
Some say live and let live
But all are agreed as they join the stam­pede
You should never take more than you give in the circle of life

It’s the wheel of fortune
It’s the leap of faith
It’s the band of hope
Till we find our place
On the path unwin­ding
In the circle, the circle of life
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Project data and compa­nies involved

Architects

Gjøde & Part­nere Arki­tekter
Høegh-Guld­bergs Gade 65
DK — 8000 Aarhus C

Photos

Aarhus I Billeder
Peter Hastrup Jensen
anskebilleder.dk

Operator

Aarhus Kommune

Text

Atelier Regular

Address

Ørne­re­devej 3
8000 Aarhus
Däne­mark

Opening

2015

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The Whale

by | 19 Dec 2019 | Installations & Events

The Whale Watching Window

“The Whale” on Andøya

Dorte Mandrup A/S

The competition

Danish archi­tec­ture studio Dorte Mandrup has won the inter­na­tional compe­ti­tion to design the new attrac­tion, The Whale, 300 km north of the Arctic Circle in nort­hern Norway.

Toge­ther with Mari­anne Levinsen Landskab and the consul­tants JAC Studios, Thornton Toma­setti, Nils Øien and Anders Kold, Dorte Mandrup A/S will design a new attrac­tion on the island of Andøya in Nort­hern Norway. Andenes is a small town of appro­xi­m­ately 2.600 citi­zens, many of whom are employed in the fishing industry and the local mili­tary air station and airport oft he island. The crea­tion of a new tourist attrac­tion is desired and supported both locally and regio­nally.

This is one of the best places in the world for whale watching, and the new buil­ding, The Whale, will tell the tale of this fabled crea­ture through art, science and archi­tec­ture.

A world class attraction in the Arctic

The whale buil­ding grows out of the land­scape. It rises natu­rally as a soft hill on the rocky shore as if a giant has lifted a thin layer of the crust of the earth and created a cavity under­neath.

The ambi­tions for the new buil­ding are high, and a visit to The Whale should be an unfor­gettable part of a stay on Andøya – a place that augments the monu­mental expe­ri­ence of the nature and the land­scape.

This remote loca­tion already has 50.000 yearly visi­tors and The Whale will signi­fi­cantly streng­then Nort­hern Norway as a travel desti­na­tion.

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The roof

The curved roof will be covered with stones that natu­rally pati­nate and under­line the connec­tion between the Norwe­gian land­scape and the buil­ding. As with the Wadden Sea Centre in Ribe and the Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat, Dorte Mandrup has desi­gned a buil­ding which doesn’t simply fit into the land­scape – it enhances its character and adds a comple­men­tary element.

The land­scape on the site was critical in defi­ning the shape of the buil­ding. The para­bolic form of the roof is defined by three high points on the site, and the foun­da­tion is informed by the land­scape beneath it.

Landscape and building

Large windows that open towards the archi­pe­lago under­line the connec­tion between land­scape and The Whale and create a visual connec­tion between the exhi­bi­tion spaces and the vast natural surroun­dings. A connec­tion which is further enhanced by rocks showing multiple places in the buil­ding.

The Whale will house exhi­bi­tion spaces, offices, a café and a store. The design respectfully ties the water­front site with the ambi­tious goal to protect the marine envi­ron­ment and its wild­life through art, science and archi­tec­ture.

The winning proposal will form the basis for the cons­truc­tion of the new buil­ding, which is expected to open in 2022.

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Project data and compa­nies involved

Landscape architect

Mari­anne Levinsen Landskab
Wilders­gade 51, 2.sal
DK — 1408 Køben­havn K

Architect

Dorte Mandrup A/S
Vester­bro­gade 95A, 4
DK — 1620 Copen­hagen

 

Illustrations

Dorte Mandrup A/S

Opening

2022

Text

Atelier Regular

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Visions in Motion

by | 2 Dec 2019 | Installations & Events

Form takes flight

„Visions in Motion“ in Berlin

Patrick Shearn & Poetic Kinetics

Moving

To mark the 30th anni­ver­sary of the Peaceful Revo­lu­tion and the fall of the Wall, Kultur­pro­jekte Berlin has invited Patrick Shearn and his team at Poetic Kine­tics to display “Visions in Motion”, the latest work from the artist’s “Skynet” series. Curated as part of Berlin’s offi­cial week-long festival, the 20,000 sq. ft. kinetic instal­la­tion spanned 450 ft. in length at the Bran­den­burg Gate, where the former Wall divided the city. The artwork’s rectan­gular shape conjures the form of the wall; but instead of a heavy, impene­trable border, the form takes flight.

Streamers

Kultur­pro­jekte Berlin was inspired to invite artist Patrick Shearn from Berlin’s sister city, Los Angeles, to bring forth an artwork for the offi­cial festi­vi­ties that symbo­lizes the unifi­ca­tion of the German people. During the Peaceful Revo­lu­tion, hundreds of thou­sands of people raised their voices and contri­buted to the fall of the Wall. In remi­nis­cence of the banners carried during the demons­tra­tions of the Peaceful Revo­lu­tion, Shearn’s instal­la­tion incor­po­rated multi­co­lored, partly reflec­tive strea­mers, which floated almost weight­lessly across the sky at the Bran­den­burg Gate in Berlin.
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Skynets

Patrick Shearn is world renowned for his striking, larger-than-life, moving sculp­tures, called Skynets. The commis­sioned work conti­nues the dynamic instal­la­tion series of ultra light­weight floa­ting artworks, rigged incon­spi­cuously to appear as if they float in midair. The artwork was comprised of appro­xi­m­ately 120,000 strea­mers of fabric— 30,000 of which contain hand­written messages coll­ected from members of the German people and the world commu­nity.

In total, the instal­la­tion was comprised of appro­xi­m­ately 9500 linear ft. of rope, over 1250 hand-tied tech­nical knots and appro­xi­m­ately 120,000 ripstop nylon and reflec­tive fabric strea­mers arranged in an elegant, colorful pattern. Harnes­sing available wind, the artwork will undu­late in a gorgeous, immersive display.

30

The Berlin Festival Week from November 4 – 10 marked the 30th anni­ver­sary of the Peaceful Revo­lu­tion and the fall of the Berlin Wall: the capital city was trans­formed into a large open-air exhi­bi­tion and event loca­tion. Over one hundred events at seven original sites of the Peaceful Revo­lu­tion, visi­tors were invited to learn, remember, debate and cele­brate.

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Project data and compa­nies involved

Address

Straße des 17. Juni/Pariser Platz
D — 10117 Berlin

Opening

4.11.2019

Design

Poetic Kine­tics

Photos

Poetic Kine­tics

Text

Atelier Regular

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At “More Sports. More Archi­tec­ture.” you will find func­tional, spec­ta­cular and simply beau­tiful buil­dings and faci­li­ties for sports and leisure.
Bergen ByArena

Bergen ByArena

Arena compri­sing 800 apart­ments and urban deve­lo­p­ment.

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Identity through Skate Parks

by | 24 Oct 2019 | Installations & Events, Installations & Events, Sports Grounds, Sports Grounds

What sports can do

Skate parks in areas of crisis: photo exhibition and presentation at the FSB

Ralf Maier

Cohesion

Sport streng­thens us, espe­ci­ally in the commu­nity. When ever­yday life really chal­lenges us, our need for balance and stabi­lity becomes even greater. We know that, studies show that.

The importance of sports and sports faci­li­ties in crisis areas is ther­e­fore simply huge. The FSB shows this impres­si­vely with the photo exhi­bi­tion “Iden­tity through Skate Parks” and the lecture “Skate Parks — elements of peace­ma­king in crisis areas”.

Skating faci­li­ties combine sports, indi­vi­dual and social aspects. They offer less stan­dar­dised compe­ti­tion areas and leave plenty of room for indi­vi­dua­lity. It’s not about personal bests, it’s about iden­tity, self-confi­dence and cohe­sion. In crisis areas, skate parks are ther­e­fore a school for life.

Exhibition and lecture

Ralf Maier has built many such faci­li­ties — inclu­ding Afgha­ni­stan, Beth­lehem, Namibia, India and most recently in Damascus. The photo exhi­bi­tion “Iden­tity through Skate Parks” at the exhi­bi­tion boule­vard shows its faci­li­ties throug­hout the entire FSB, namely from 5 to 8 November 2019 — on large-format, impres­sive pictures with lots of happy people.

Under the title “Skate Parks — elements of peace­ma­king in crisis areas”, Ralf Maier pres­ents these projects (and more) on 7 November at the FSB. The lecture is part of Land­scape Archi­tect Day orga­nised by the BDLA.

Who does something like this?

In order to imple­ment such projects, you indeed need a few coura­geous and deter­mined people. One of these is Titus Ditt­mann, a former sports teacher and himself a pioneer of skate­boar­ding in Germany. He reco­g­nised the huge poten­tial of skate parks for huma­ni­ta­rian projects and founded the skate-aid foun­da­tion. Today, skate-aid is the moral and often the finan­cial sponsor of the vast majo­rity of projects presented at the FSB.

Another is Ralf Maier, founder and owner of Maier Land­schafts­ar­chi­tektur / Beton­land­schaften (Cologne). The long-stan­ding BMX profes­sional and world cham­pion has been lending his support to skate-aid since the crea­tion of the foun­da­tion in 2009 in the role of hono­rary planner and land­scape archi­tect.

Visit Maier Land­schafts­ar­chi­tektur

Diversification

Once completed, the skate parks will remain super­vised and offer free recrea­tional acti­vi­ties for children and young people, and of course regard­less of age, reli­gion, skin colour, social class and gender. In addi­tion to work­shops with free skate­board lessons, skate­boards, access­ories and protec­tive gear are provided. It also takes a lot of courage, resources and people to do it all.

Ther­e­fore, skate faci­li­ties are an important and sustainable contri­bu­tion to peace work in affected regions, which can change society on the ground. Sport can achieve all this.

Take a look.

Links…

…und further Infor­ma­tion

Exhibition

“Iden­tity through Skate Parks”
FSB Boule­vard
5 to 8 November 2019, all day

Pumptrack Seminar

Pump tracks – The New Roller Sports Faci­li­ties

BDLA Day

Program and further infor­ma­tionen

Further Informationen

Dipl.-Ing. Ralf Maier
maier land­schafts­ar­chi­tektur
Rösra­ther Straße 769
D‑51107 Cologne

Trade Fair

FSB 
Fach­messe für Frei­raum, Sport- und Bewe­gungs­ein­rich­tungen

skate-aid

skate-aid inter­na­tional e.V.
Wall­straße 86
D — 10179 Berlin 

Exhibition

“Iden­tity Foun­da­tion through Skate Parks”
FSB Messe-Boule­vard
5 to 8 November 2019, all day

maier landschaftsarchitektur at the FSB

Hall 7.1 | Stand D042

Text

Johannes Bühl­be­cker
More Sports Media

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At “More Sports. More Archi­tec­ture.” you will find func­tional, spec­ta­cular and simply beau­tiful buil­dings and faci­li­ties for sports and leisure.
Bergen ByArena

Bergen ByArena

Arena compri­sing 800 apart­ments and urban deve­lo­p­ment.

Tell me more.

Melos Innovations

by | 23 Oct 2019 | Installations & Events, Sports Grounds

Melos Innovations

FSB novelties

Melos

MoveNow, the interactive LED flooring

Inter­ac­tive LED floo­ring creates inter­ac­tive, touch-sensi­tive surfaces that can shine in all colours and are inte­grated into walls like a monitor in floors. They create a new type of living envi­ron­ment that combines a wide variety of disci­plines: Mate­rials deve­lo­p­ment and sensor tech­no­logy, educa­tion and life­style, inno­va­tion manage­ment and urban plan­ning.

The tech­nical basis is a metal frame that accom­mo­dates all the neces­sary elec­tro­tech­nical compon­ents and is suitable for both indoor and outdoor appli­ca­tions. On it, a trans­pa­rent, slightly elastic PU mat is installed.

A speci­ally deve­loped game confi­gu­rator soft­ware allows for every possi­bi­lity of indi­vi­dua­li­sa­tion. Game ideas can be trans­ferred to surfaces in floors and walls in a way previously only known from computer games or on a small scale from board games.

More about MoveNow
More about Turfrob

Our greenkeeper is a robot

The importance of arti­fi­cial turf pitches, espe­ci­ally for foot­ball, is now acknow­ledged. However, the lasting quality and dura­bi­lity of the pitches depend very much on their main­ten­ance. This is a problem for many clubs needing volun­teer keepers to do this.

A comple­tely newly deve­loped robot can be a solu­tion here: In a single opera­tion, it brushes and groomes the turf auto­no­mously .

Various main­ten­ance programs are available via app. This new deve­lo­p­ment is called Turfrob and works comple­tely without super­vi­sion. For example at night.

The Turfrob will also be on display at the Melos stand during FSB.

Designing sports and leisure floorings

In the tradi­tional plan­ning of sports and leisure floo­rings, very diffe­rent tools were used, and these were not compa­tible: sket­ches on paper, project plans in Excel and hand­written contact data on the desk pad.

Now there is a new tool that orga­nizes all project phases such as design, calcu­la­tion and imple­men­ta­tion compre­hen­si­vely and digi­tally. It is called PROJECT­planner and can be used, among other things:

  • Buil­ding Infor­ma­tion Model­ling: BIM-compliant plan­ning
  • Simpli­fied measu­re­ment via import of exis­ting drawings or aerial photo­graphs
  • Intui­tive surface and draft design through inte­grated drawing tool
  • Conside­ra­tion of prepa­ra­tory work (subs­truc­ture / enclo­sure)
  • Auto­matic gene­ra­tion of offers and product requi­re­ment quan­ti­ties
  • Tender texts, instal­la­tion instruc­tions, tool lists and video tuto­rials
  • Direct orde­ring of project-related mate­rials via the app

PROJECT­planner powered by SYNLawn is perfect for buil­ding contrac­tors, archi­tects and specia­list plan­ners as well as for instal­ling and manu­fac­tu­ring compa­nies.

Learn more at FSB visi­ting Melos.

More about PROJECT­planner

We did this.

Compa­nies involved & Links

Melos at FSB

Hall 10.2, Booth F040 /G041

Melos

Melos GmbH
Bismarck­strasse 4–10
D‑49324 Melle

FSB

Koeln­messe
5.11. — 8.11.2019

Interactive LED Floorings

MoveNow powered by Melos

Turf Maintenance Robot

Turfrob

Planning Tool

Videos

Follow us!

Want more?

Visit our Blog

At “More Sports. More Archi­tec­ture.” you will find func­tional, spec­ta­cular and simply beau­tiful buil­dings and faci­li­ties for sports and leisure.
Bergen ByArena

Bergen ByArena

Arena compri­sing 800 apart­ments and urban deve­lo­p­ment.

Tell me more.

Pump tracks — The New Roller Sports Facilities

by | 9 Oct 2019 | Installations & Events, Sports Grounds

Pump tracks at the FSB

A bdla seminar in Cologne

maier landschaftsarchitektur

“Pump tracks — The New Roller Sports Facilities” at the FSB

Pump tracks are beco­ming incre­asingly important. That’s why the seminar “Pump tracks — The New Roller Sports Faci­li­ties” will take place on November 7th in Cologne during the bdla day at the FSB. Ralf Maier is one of the spea­kers. FSB is the world’s largest and most important trade fair for the cons­truc­tion and opera­tion of sports and leisure faci­li­ties. These are three very good reasons to come to Cologne on November 7th. Here are a few more.

The Seminar

Pump tracks are abso­lutely on the rise. Ther­e­fore, they are no longer built from earth or clay, but using perma­nent asphalt cons­truc­tion. This turns a simple cycle track into a multi­func­tional sports complex for a wide variety of user groups such as MTB riders, BMX riders, skate­boar­ders, long­boar­ders, inline skaters, roller skaters and of course wheel­chair users.

This momen­tous deve­lo­p­ment raises ques­tions — the seminar answers them. Four lectures deal with the plan­ning requi­re­ments, and the safety and social importance of these faci­li­ties. For these topics there are many instruc­tive as well as spec­ta­cular examples in already realised projects. We are very happy that Ralf Maier will present two of these topics.

Orga­niser of the seminar is the Asso­cia­tion of German Land­scape Archi­tects (bdla), the Nord­rhein-West­falen state group. The event is reco­g­nised with two hours of trai­ning for land­scape archi­tects and archi­tects from the NW work group. The complete programme of the seminar and the regis­tra­tion form can be found here.

Program

The FSB

From the 5th to the 8th November, more than 600 compa­nies from 45 count­ries will present their range of services at the Cologne trade fair. The FSB (Inter­na­tional Trade Fair for Freedom, Sports and Exer­cise Faci­li­ties) concen­trates on all topics rela­ting to the areas of open space plan­ning and design, sports faci­lity archi­tec­ture, play­grounds, sports equip­ment, exer­cise areas and leisure faci­li­ties — making it the industry meeting place. More about the FSB can be found here.

maier land­scape archi­tec­ture can be found in Hall 7.1 | Stand D042. We look forward to you paying us a visit!

Visit maier land­schafts­ar­chi­tektur

The bdla day

For the third time, the so-called bdla day will take place on the FSB and in the context of the planner FORUM. In Rhine­land one speaks already about it being a tradi­tion.

“Pump tracks — The new roller sports faci­li­ties” is part of the bdla day. The seminar is aimed at plan­ners, buil­ders and sports clubs. It provides basics and decision support for the plan­ning and imple­men­ta­tion of pump tracks using asphalt cons­truc­tion.

Further infor­ma­tion about the bdla day can be found here.

Visit bdla day

Links…

…and further Infor­ma­tion

Registration

Pump tracks — The New Roller Sports Faci­li­ties

bdla day

Program and further info­ma­tion

Further informationen

Dipl.-Ing. Ralf Maier
maier land­schafts­ar­chi­tektur
Rösra­ther Straße 769
D‑51107 Köln

Date

7 November 2019, 1 p.m.

Trade fair

FSB 
Fach­messe für Frei­raum, Sport- und Bewe­gungs­ein­rich­tungen

Text

Johannes Bühl­be­cker
More Sports Media

Follow us!

Want more?

Visit our Blog

At “More Sports. More Archi­tec­ture.” you will find func­tional, spec­ta­cular and simply beau­tiful buil­dings and faci­li­ties for sports and leisure.
Bergen ByArena

Bergen ByArena

Arena compri­sing 800 apart­ments and urban deve­lo­p­ment.

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