| Architecture |
The glass sail of the new Milan trade fair
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The new Milan trade fair, one of Europe's biggest exhibition facilities, opened on March 31. The new complex is characterised by an undulating glass and steel roof, which is more than 30 meter high at some points.
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 In little more than two years - a record, given the size and complexity of the undertaking - architect Massimiliano Fuksas' daring project has become an exhibition centre that combines aesthetic values and high technology solutions. The new complex is an impressive structure, with a gross covered area of 345,000 sq.m., plus 60,000 sq.m. of outdoor space, built on a two million square meter plot of land. The investment amounts to ? 750,000,000.
The glass sail stretces 1,300 meters, or 4,300 feet, and is composed of 100,000 pieces of glass, each one different and flat to avoid using any curved elements. The sail has a surface area of 47,000 square meters, or 506,000 square feet, and weighs in at 9,000 tons.
Ten years ago the glass structure, which floats on for hundreds of meters with no lateral support, would have been impossible to build because calculations and simulations required powerful information tools that were not available then.
Fuksas has described tha sail as "an explosion" whose very dynamism creates its own architectural landscape. ?Architecture should surprise" Fuksas said. "It?s like music: sometimes you repeat a theme, sometimes there are variations."
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Photos: Web
Last review: June, 2005 |
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