The first prize in Macro Architecture went to Hugo Cifre from the Universidad Europea de Madrid/Espacio La Nube and Miguel Angel Maure Blesa from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid for their Bubble project. © Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH.

Eight projects have been awarded in the Textile Structures for New Buildings competition at the Techtextil/Texprocess shows, which opened yesterday in Frankfurt. For the 15th time, the competition for young talent honoured innovative approaches and excellent material solutions from the world of textile construction.

The winners of the student competition were decided by an international jury of renowned civil engineers and architects with six prizes and two commendations. The competition is organised jointly by the international association TensiNet and Techtextil and will award prizes for the 15th time for innovative ideas for building with textiles and textile-reinforced materials.

The Bubble won the first prize in the category macro architecture. “We're really pleased that, together with the international association TensiNet, we are once again able to sponsor students who have submitted work of a very high quality. Presenting these awards during Techtextil also gives young students and professionals at the start of their careers the chance to come into contact with other universities, the textile technology industry and the construction industry,“ explained Michael Jänecke, Director Brand Development Technical Textiles & Textile Processing at Messe Frankfurt.

The Bubble. © Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH.

The submitted works covered a very wide range of services and variety of topics and focused among other things on material applications, building designs, utilisation concepts and environmental solutions as well as assembly and construction concepts. Prizes and commendations were presented at a Techtextil ceremony yesterday as well as during a special show in the foyer of hall 4.2.

Micro architecture

Rebecca Schedler from the Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin was awarded for her project Airdapt, in which she developed an adaptable kinetic wall system that offers the possibility of dividing large rooms into smaller working areas that can become more or less transparent and more or less sound-absorbing depending on requirements.

Macro architecture

The first prize in Macro Architecture went to Hugo Cifre from the Universidad Europea de Madrid/Espacio La Nube and Miguel Angel Maure Blesa from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid for their Bubble project. The pneumatically supported walk-in cuboid has a square layout and a height of approx. 4 metres. The entrances are elegantly integrated into the geometry and become effective when the cuboid is under slight positive air pressure. Attracted by the unusual object, visitors are literally ‘sucked into’ the interior.

Second prize went to Thitiwut Pakdee, Surakist Hunpaisarn and Chonticha Wimonchailerk from the Thai Thammasat University for their work on Membrane Shelter for Shipyard, which provides a membrane canopy for the site of a former shipyard in Ayutthaya (Thailand) to protect the plant from direct sunlight, wind and rain. The concept was inspired by the sails and waves of classic shipbuilding.

Ruichen Tang from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid was awarded third prize for the entry Tensegrity Cloud. The visual lightness of the ‘basic modules’ formed by this design, which consist of a textile-covered steel frame, is supplemented by a structural advantage, namely that the forces within the overall self-stabilising system balance each other out.

Urban Living – City of the Future

Based on this year's special Techtextil theme, Masa Zujovic, Isidora Kojovic and Nevena Jeremic from the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Architecture (Serbia) received an award for their Voro-Membrane design. “What at first glance seems convincing as an aesthetic solution for providing shade in public street spaces is based on the mathematical pattern of Voronoi structures. The resulting exciting interplay of light and shadow could be further explored in an urban context and applied to a wide variety of situations,” the organisers said.

Also, in this category, Magdalena Wierzbicka from the Dutch Piet Zwart Institute was awarded a prize for her project Woven Spaces - Porcelain Textiles. Here, the jury honoured the fact that the contribution draws on the Thuringian tradition of porcelain lace from the late 19^th century and transforms it into a modern design language.

The project A Catalyst for Urban Renewal by Galen Rochon from Canada’s Dalhousie University – School of Architecture received a commendation. In this design for the Prince of Wales Bridge in Ottawa, an industrial monument that has been unused for 20 years, various possibilities were shown for hanging double-curved membrane surfaces in the existing, regularly structured truss construction and stiffening them if necessary.

The design XCape submitted by Lobke Beckfeld from the Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin also received praise. It presents a hybrid vehicle whose space is generated by variable folding configurations and can be used in a variety of ways.

Prize-winners can look forward to prize money totalling 8,000 Euros.

www.techtextil.messefrankfurt.com