Transparent Shells

This book draws on the author's contemplations and experiences, and includes his descriptions of recent developments in the field of transparent shell structures. He gathered these during his time with the engineering firm schlaich bergermann und partner. Dr.-Ing. Hans Schober graduated in Structural Engineering at the University of Stuttgart, before joining schlaich bergermann und partner in 1982. In 1992 he became a partner at the Stuttgart headquarters, then taking over the position of managing director of the New York branch in 2005. In 2009 he then returned to Stuttgart as partner at sbp until 2013. Since then he has worked as a consultant. As a student of Jörg Schlaich he devoted his time to pedestrian and railway bridges; focusing particularly on the design of filigree transparent shells and stressed cable net facades. On various projects he worked in collaboration with a number of internationally renowned architects including, amongst others, F. O. Gehry, Meinhard von Gerkan und Volkwin Marg (gmp), Rafael Vinoly, Hani Rashid (asymptote), David Childs (SOM), James Carpenter, I. M. Pei, Cesar Pelli, Massimiliano Fuksas, and Shigeru Ban.

Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
About the author
With the collaboration of
1 Introduction to shells
Designing shells
2 History
Historical examples
3 Design principle of grid shells
Development of the design principle
Construction of the grid shells in Neckarsulm and in Hamburg
4 Graphic design prionciples for grid shells with flat quadrilateral meshes
Graphic design principles for translational surfaces
The barrel vault as simplest translational surface
Surface of revolution
Domes as translational surfaces
Hyperbolic paraboloid with flat quadrilateral meshes
Skew translation
Graphic design principle for scale-trans surfaces
Lamella surfaces with flat quadrangular meshes
Scaling of double-curved surfaces with flat quadrangular meshes
Application for spatial sheet metal constructions
Application for formwork in concrete construction
5 Free formed grid shells
Grid shells with flat quadrangular meshes based on free-forms
Grid shells with warped quadrangular meshes
Combination of flat quadrangular and triangular meshes
6 Form-finding and optimisation of grid shells
Form-finding on the inverted hanging model
Form-finding with membrane elements
Form-finding based on dynamic relaxation and the force density method
Holistic form-finding usind shape optimisation
7 On the structural design of grid shells
Structural analysis of glazing
Analysis of the structure
8 Built examples
List of glazed shells
Node connections
9 Holistic design - developments and outlook
Bibliography
Bibliogrphy on projects
List of projects
Picture credits