The second construction is a glass cylinder which consists of an inner and an outer cylinder with 600sqm curved glass surface. Inside the cylinder a hydraulic lift extends over four floors. A spiral staircase was installed between the two glass cylinders. The peculiarity of the cylinder lies in the joints between the glasses: The prevailing weather conditions at the site required a system that provides the necessary stability of the entire cylinder. Since the cylinder rises 18m in height, additionally exceeds the height of the building and thus is exposed to high wind pressures, tension rods were installed in the joints. After each glass row, the glass and the stainless steel rings were pretensioned with tension rods so that the entire cylinder is tensed down and fixed to the building.
Header image: © seele/Andreas Keller