Wallington – Walking to the Walled Garden
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Tag Archives: Water
Architecture 100 :: 37 Kultur-und Kongresszentrum
The Kultur-und Kongresszentrum or Culture and Convention Centre when translated into English is more commonly known as the KKL Centre.
The KKL Centre was a project of French architect Jean Nouvel and built between the years 1995 to 2000.
The Culture and Convention Center in Lucerne is composed of three parts: a concert hall, conference rooms with an auditorium and a museum of contemporary art.
The idea was to play with a horizontal plane as canopy linking the different spaces that are lined up below. This form on the elevation level of the lake covered a large urban area with a water element. The metaphor refers to three ships docked in the lake under the huge deck.
The construction was a major challenge because of the overhang that reaches 45 meters on the diagonal, with a height of 21 meters. This represents the most architecturally unique building, which ‘float’ light and elegant between land and sky, and gives the area a peaceful atmosphere.
The roof was designed to harmonize with a horizontal center of the lake, inviting visitors to spend some time abroad.
Faced with the impossibility of building the center on water, Nouvel decided to enter the lake in the building, creating two channels of low depth that operate within the complex. The water was channeled into the three parts of the building at the same level as the Plaza Europa.
The tech behind the structure:
In choosing the form of the large roof overhang and structural economic influence. A web of steel plate girders were included to strengthen the high slope in the northeast corner. With a maximum height of 3.7 meters beam, falling almost to zero at the edge of the roof, it was possible to achieve a cantilever beam of 45 meters.
A major challenge was how to ensure continuity at the intersection of three beams of 2.5 meters. The engineers used an innovative concept for linking the main diagonal beams to allow a continuous distribution of bending throughout the structure, uninterrupted by the joints. Diagonal beams were organized to achieve large holes in the main beams. Linkages were established with neck bolts using HSFG soldier.
As the wind is the most important cargo solicitation on the roof, their behavior was studied in a wind tunnel using a 1:200 scale model. Different parts of the structure were tested in a laboratory compared to storms, earthquakes, fires, depletion and degradation. The long-term performance of the roof is guaranteed by an extensive program of inspection and maintenance. To access the interior of the roof is designed especially removable plates.
The Chapel Bridge and Water Tower
The Chapel Bridge and Water Tower were built in the 14th century. The bridge served as a rampart, as well as part of the towns fortification. Originally 285 meters long, the bridge was shortened several times during the 19th century. Water tower served as a dungeon, archive and treasury vault.
In the 17th century the Chapel Bridge was adorned with a set of paintings. The triangular panels were designed by town secretary Renward Cysat, a universal scholar, and painted in Renaissance style by Hans Heinrich Wagmann. The series of paintings depict the development of the city and republic of Lucerne from a Counter-Reformation point of view. Other pictures portray the life and sufferings of the town’s two patron saints, St. Leodegar and St. Mauritius.
During the night of 17th August 1993, a fire broke out on the Chapel Bridge burning 81 of the 111 bridge paintings. The paintings of both bridge-heads escaped damage by the blaze.
Between 1994 and 2001 photographic facsimiles were displayed to fill the enormous gap.
In 2002 Lucerne’s city council together with the federal and cantonal offices for the preservation of historical monuments, agreed upon which the order of the paintings would be newly hung.
The paintings on the bridgeheads are the originals. In the middle of the bridge the paintings from the St. Mauritius series can be seen. These had been removed in the 19th century when the bridge was shortened during the construction of the quays on the north and south ends.
The gap remaining between the paintings serves as a reminder of the irreparable loss to the bridge – and for the city of Lucerne – caused by the blaze on the night of 17th August 1993.*
*Information from a sign board located next to the bridge.
PS: I don’t have photos of the paintings on this bridge, but I do have photographs of paintings from a similar bridge. Coming soon… 😉
Cherie's Place – Thought for the Week
The good, of course is always beautiful, and the beautiful never lacks proportion.
Plato
At the Bend in the River
Dorothy Clive Garden
Enjoying the Sunshine
Compton Verney – The Grounds
The historic grounds at Compton Verney are registered as a Grade II* listed parkland. Most of what you see in the grounds is the result of a long-term project to restore many of the features which Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716 – 1783) created after 1768. Brown was commissioned by John Verney, 14th Baron Willoughby de Broke (1738 – 1816) to redesign the landscape at Compton Verney. Brown’s resulting landscape typified his minimalist approach to parkland, with its sweeping vistas, viewpoints and imaginative use of water.*
*Info from the Compton Verney Grounds leaflet.
I Left My Heart in a Paris Garden
Silver Lime Trees
In my post showing photos of the Italian Garden at Arley Arboretum I was asked what the trees lining the wall were and at the time I didn’t know. I have now found out that they are Silver Lime trees (Tilia tomentosa) and the interlocking of the branches is pleaching which is a term I have never heard of before.
Pleaching is a technique to weave the branches of trees into a hedge. Commonly, deciduous trees are planted in lines, then pleached to form a flat plane on clear stems above the ground level. Branches are woven together and lightly tied.[1] Branches in close contact may grow together, due to a natural phenomenon called inosculation, a natural graft.
Cherie's Other Place 