Proyecto Final: Frankfurt Trade Fair Hall

Architect: Grimshaw Architects

Date of Construction: 2001

Style: High Tech Architecture

Function: Office and Trade Hall

Size: 85,000 m2

Client: Messe Frankfurt GmbH

Location: Frankfurt, Germany

The building.

The Architect

Sir Nicholas Grimshaw 9 October 1939

Is a prominent English architect, noted for several modernist buldings, incluiding London's Waterloo International railway station and the Eden Project, He was elected President of the Royal Academy in 2004. Born in Hove, East Sussex, Grimshaw inherited an interest for engineering and also reputed to have displayed an early interest in construction.He was educated at Wellington Collage and attended the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, where he won further scholarships to travel to Sweden in 1963 and the United States in 1964. He graduated from the AA in 1965 with an honours degree, and having entered into a partnership with Terry Farrell, he joined the Royal Institute of British Architects two years later in 1967. He worked with Farrell for 15 years before establishing his own firm, Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners, in 1980. In 1989, he won a RIBA national award for his design of the Financial Time printworks in east London.

In 1994 also saw him elected a vice-chairman of the Architectural Association, a member of the Royal Academy and a member of the American Institute of Architects.The work of Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners is the subject of a series of monographs published by Phaidon Press.

Concept

Grimshaw’s design completes the southern perimeter of a large urban square known as the ‘Agora’, presenting a 165m long, fully glazed elevation. The structure spans the length of the building to present an open facade. Laid out over two storeys, the design comprises 40,000 sq m of exhibition space, fed by twin blocks of four-storey foyer access, one occupying each short side.

The roof is essentially a single, giant, folded plate structure formed from a continuous network of welded steel tubes spanning 165m. Its deck is formed from stressed skin prefabricated panels consisting of two profiled steel decks. There are only sixty different panel types keeping manufacturing costs to an absolute minimum.

Clerestory glazing draws daylight deep into the heart of the building, accentuating the clarity and integrity of a roofline that is unimpeded by plants and service ducts. These are absorbed into the double-deck that separates the upper and lower exhibition halls. This deck accommodates the high-level pedestrian access route that serves the existing Messe.

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