Design in Acrylics

24 Pages·2010·1.64 MB·English

DDeessiiggnn iinn AAccrryylliiccss
The ACRYLITE® Magazine 2010 NO 7
03 Warming – living 08 Revealing – no place for 10 Illuminating – glowing 18 Amazing – restaurant 22 Remembering – Chinese
comfortably in harmony wine bottles to hide on icicles of ACRYLITE® among New Zealand’s tea embodies rituals of the
with nature transparent racks as lamps treetops imperial dynasties
Going down
Tourists have close encounters with the underwater
world in a miniature submersible. This is enabled by
specially formed transparent ACRYLITE® windows for the
ultimate fun diving experience. More on page 12.
Dear Readers:
One of the challenges in our society is to reconcile man with nature. Giving people
access to the beauties of nature and helping to protect the environment at the same
time is a responsible task, and one where ACRYLITE® can provide assistance.
The Tree House in New Zealand is a unique combination of an exclusive restaurant
and an experience of nature. Protected by a barely visible ACRYLITE® roof, people
enjoy their meal among swaying branches. The 33 foot difference in height up to the
Tree House is spanned by a 197-foot wooden bridge that is softly lit at night by lamps
with ACRYLITE® P95 covers.
ACRYLITE® offers quite a different experience of nature in our own hemisphere.
People board the Nemo submersible in the East German Helenesee (Lake Helen) to
explore the underwater world. Thin but stable domes give a clear view of underwater
Michael Träxler,
life and give passengers close encounters with local plants and animals.
Senior Vice President
Acrylic Polymers The bio-solar house unites environmental protection in the classical sense with com-
fort. ACRYLITE® DEGLAS ALLTOP SDP multi-skin sheets in a delicate construction
help to achieve these aims by means of their transparency, letting warming sunlight
into the house. This façade makes it possible to cut the heating energy requirement
by up to 90 kWh per square meter a year.
I wish you an enjoyable read of these futuristic stories.
A Moment in Time
An impressive stream of light shines through a transparent
shell. A glowing fluid swirls inside and lights up all that sur-
rounds it. The glowing fastening element shows how luminous
this liquid is. But it is not captive fire that is being directed – the
force that lights up the darkness is the world’s largest chemi-
luminescent lightstick with an imposing size, an outside diam-
eter of eight inches and a height of ten feet. Twenty-six gallons
of different fluids are stored in a fragile core made of single
glass. When hit at a predefined spot of the brittle interior, the
chemicals react with each other. The giant lightstick presents
its fascinating play of light in a shell made of precisely dimen-
sioned, impact-resistant ACRYLITE®.
2
Onion shape or gable roof – the bio-solar house functions almost entirely without technology, and saves energy too.
Nature Triumphs Over Technology
.
More energy-efficient than pass- When an engineer designs a house, Alban in the German federal state of
ive houses and even healthier: one would presume it includes a lot Rhineland-Palatinate. The core of the
of technology. But quite the opposite is building is a well-insulated interior
the bio-solar house
true of the bio-solar house. Mechanical house that is enclosed in an outer
engineer Klaus Becher consciously de- weather-protection shell. Between
signed a house that works with a mini- the two parts of the house is an air layer
mum of technology and even saves ener- that is heated by the transparent
gy in the bargain. This is made possible ACRYLITE surfaces in the façade and
by the judicious use of physical laws by sunlight in the conservatory. This
such as the greenhouse effect that is greenhouse effect protects the rooms
good for climate protection in this con- inside from heat loss and avoids the
text. In the bio-solar house, the green- formation of condensate. To do this, it is
house effect is created by the transpar- important for the sheets to be highly
ent roof and façade elements made of transparent and to let in plenty of day-
ACRYLITE DEGLAS ALLTOP SDP light. “That is why we use ACRYLITE,
multi-skin sheet. These conduct a lot of which is also resistant to UV light and
warming sunlight into the house. As a weather, and does not turn yellow after
side-effect, the room climate in the bio- a while like other plastics,“ says Becher.
solar house is also particularly healthy. He can be sure of that, because Evonik
gives a 10-year guarantee of protection
No such thing as impossible against yellowing.
As the technical manager of industrial
plants, Klaus Becher had spent his entire Saving instead of freezing
professional life with machines that The bio-solar house system is as easy as
didn‘t work. In his retirement, he there- it is effective. According to Becher, it
fore wanted a house that functioned al- has a heating energy requirement of 10
most without technology, was energy- to 25 kWh per year per square metre of
saving and healthy to boot. “No such usable floor space. The primary energy
house existed in the early 1990s, so I de- requirement is less than 10 kWh per
signed one myself,“ says 74-year-old square metre. “That is less than a passive
Becher, as if that were the most natural house and corresponds to annual heat-
thing in the world, and adds: “I bore in ing costs of US-$ 210 to 500,” Becher
mind the knowledge of house construc- says. In comparison, a newly built house
tion gathered in past centuries and the for several families has a heating energy
laws of nature.” requirement of around 100 kWh per
year and square metre of usable floor
The principle of a house within a space. The bio-solar house is preferen-
house tially heated using a wood burning stove
This led to the construction in 1994 of that creates a cozy atmosphere in the
the first of more than 250 bio-solar conservatory and is very cost-effective.
houses built according to Becher‘s The Jacobi family, who have been living
patented construction principle, in St. in their bio-solar house since December
Architecture 3
Transparent multi-skin sheets provide the positive greenhouse effect. The conservatory, a vital component of the energy concept.
Air layer Inner shell ACRYLITE® roof Absorber
Outer shell
2005, is very appreciative of that fact. air between the inner and outer shell of
“We heat the house from November to the building escapes by the so-called
March. At temperatures of about 40°F, it chimney effect. This prevents heat
is quite sufficient to light the burner for build-up indoors and at night, cool air
two hours every two days. At sub-zero can be let in. “Due to the chimney effect,
temperatures, we heat for two hours the interior remains pleasantly cool in
every day. Last year, we used four cubic the hot season, without sophisticated
metres of wood for that, which I was cooling technology,“ Becher explains.
able to buy cheaply at US-$ 70,” says
Wall radiators
Darko Jacobi, who estimates having had Gore-Tex vs. plastic raincoat
to pay another US-$ 880 for electricity There is another reason why a bio-solar
Wood burner in Hot water for the family’s 3,700 kWh power con- house does not require a technical venti-
conservatory storage tank sumption in 2008. The wood burner lation system. Thanks to the natural, un-
also heats the water for the wall radi- treated building materials, the indoor
House within a house: the inner and outer shell,
ators and hot water. In summer, the walls are open to diffusion. That means
the air layer in between and further elements make
the bio-solar house an energy-saving and healthy water used by the family is heated to the the water vapor that is produced in
way to live. desired temperature by solar power via every house, as well as other gases, can
water pipes under the skylight. “Even escape through the walls. This prevents
between seasons, i.e. in late spring from humidity, which is dangerous for build-
April on and in autumn up to October, ings and can lead to harmful mold
sunlight alone is usually enough to heat formation. Architect Udo Guenther-
the water,“ Darko Jacobi reports. Dreisbusch from the Energieberatung-
24.de company sees this as a crucial ad-
Airy in summer vantage over conventional passive
Whereas the sun heats the house in houses: “Passive houses have to be abso-
winter and the greenhouse effect heats lutely airtight. That means they have a
it in summer, cooling is achieved in vapor barrier in the walls and require
summer merely by opening windows. expensive ventilation technology in
For this, air flaps have been built into the order to function properly. As a building
roof. When these and the outer doors of consultant, I see a lot of incompetent
the conservatory are opened, the warm building every day. When I remove in-
4 Architecture
Air flaps in the roof let hot air escape in summer and keep
the inner house nice and cool.
Green oasis for plants and people. The natural ventilation has a positive effect on the
health of the people who live in the bio-solar house.
sulation sheets, the whole wall behind is the building materials is just as import- solar houses that the room climate is
often covered in mold.” Guenther- ant to Guenther-Dreisbusch: “Take beneficial to health: “People who suffer
Dreisbusch gives two examples of how ACRYLITE® as an example. It can be from asthma, allergies, rheumatism or
well the natural ventilation works in the simply cold-curved, is hail-resistant and neurodermitis find their symptoms im-
bio-solar house: “A baby’s used diaper can also withstand stress without being prove or even disappear completely.”
does not smell indoors, and the mirror damaged. That is inconceivable with This is because the natural ventilation
doesn’t frost up when someone takes a glass.“ The weight also plays an import- and air drying in the bio-solar house
shower. You can compare a bio-solar ant role in architecture: “ACRYLITE® is prevent the factors that cause these
house to a breathable Gore-Tex jacket. much lighter than glass and enables conditions. Mold, dust, viruses, bacteria
A passive house, on the other hand, is more delicate conservatory designs. In and allergens can multiply rapidly in air-
like a plastic raincoat that soon makes addition, the double-skin sheets show tight passive houses with ventilation
you sweat.“ good heat insulation and can be installed systems and conventional heating. In the
without frames, unlike glass. This pre- bio-solar house, though, they are ex-
The tolerant type vents energy losses through unnecess- cluded right from the start by the con-
Architect Guenther-Dreisbusch is so ary thermal bridging.“ struction principle. That is why the bio-
confident in the bio-solar house that he solar house received an award in 1997
has already designed four of them for his Healthy climate from the German Confederation of
clients. To him, the construction prin- To allow enough sunlight to enter to heat Skilled Crafts as Germany’s healthiest
ciple is of prime importance, which up the air cushion between the outer house.
allows for much greater leeway during and inner shell of the building, the con-
construction because it dispenses with servatory is a firm component of every Solar park rather than
sensitive technology that is prone to bio-solar house. “It makes our house retirement home
break down. “A passive house, on the nice and bright and keeps us cheerful Becher’s original idea was to build him-
other hand, is a bit like the Mercedes A even in winter,” says Jacobi. He also self a home for his retirement. But no-
class that can only pass the famous elk thinks the special room climate makes thing came of that. A small settlement
test of crosswind stability by incorpo- for well-being: “Wall radiators don’t stir with eight more houses of the same type
rating a great deal of technology. Other up dust like other kinds of heating do. has meanwhile been built around his
cars are built to offer crosswind stability That is very pleasant and is always com- first bio-solar house, named Sonnen-
due to their very design, just as the bio- mented on by visitors.” The inventor park St. Alban – the research and devel-
solar house works merely due to the Klaus Becher has received confirmation opment center of the specially founded
laws of nature.“ Freedom to choose from many people who live in his bio- company Bio-Solar-Haus GmbH. The
Architecture 5
“You can compare a
bio-solar house to a
breathable Gore-Tex
jacket. A passive house,
on the other hand, is like
a plastic raincoat that
Klaus Becher (left), mechanical engineer and the man who developed the bio-solar house, and his nephew Hubert
Becher, have proved that building can be environmentally friendly, stylish and healthy all in one. soon makes you sweat.”
firm with its 12 employees is managed heat is no problem even in the Mediter-
by Becher’s 40-year-old nephew Hu- ranean region,” Hubert Becher says.
bert. People intending to build this type That makes the bio-solar house a fu-
of house can test-live in one of the ture-ready construction concept that
houses at the solar park before making has already passed its practice test. This
their decision. Meanwhile, the range of is reflected in the numerous awards it
buildings includes schools and offices as has received, such as the German Solar
well as residential housing, also in lati- Prize 2003 and the Environment Award
tudes that pose greater problems, like of the Federal State of Rhineland-Palat-
the extremely windy Shetland Islands. inate. hf
“With regard to heat balance, the bio-
solar houses function up to the North
Pole and down to the South Pole. And
www.Bio-Solar-Haus.com
A good combination: solar modules and bio-solar houses stand for environmentally-friendly living.
6 Architecture
Double the Lightness for Stylish Ladies
.
Work at Ute Piwowar- Various colors add bright touches, ing with ACRYLITE in past years and
create enfolded blossoms or under- tried out more and more new tech-
sky’s studio involves
line the geometric shapes. “I am fasci- niques,” Piwowarsky says. The pieces of
routing, drilling, sawing
nated by the material’s light effects, such jewelry created in this way find favor
and coloring. The ob- as the colors of the rainbow that arise with her customers especially because
jects she works on are when I use prismatic forms, i.e. certain of their lightness, in two senses of the
cutting angles. But I also have numerous word: Because ACRYLITE weighs so
mostly transparent.
options for other shapes, and I’ve also little, even larger creations are not too
developed some unconventional ma- heavy for fashionistas to wear. And their
chining techniques,” says Ute Piwowar- transparency makes for optical lightness
sky, who has been designing chains, ear- too.
rings and bangles made of ACRYLITE The little works of art can be bought via
for 20 years. She usually gets her new the Internet and at selected galleries and
ideas when working on an item. Some- artists’ markets. “My jewelry appeals es-
times, chance plays a crucial role: “I have pecially to women over 30 who have
a certain idea, try something out and found their individual style,” says the
often end up with something quite dif- artist, who likes wearing her own
ferent, but very beautiful,” the artist ex- designs. “I made my favorite earrings
plains. For some items, she puts the ma- over 10 years ago. They are timelessly
terial under a level of stress it does not beautiful.” They consist of large trans-
usually have to bear. Her aim is to make parent prisms that refract light on their
creative use of changes that would be inner and outer surfaces, creating a
considered defects on a larger scale. series of new effects that are enduringly
There are a number of machines at Pi- attractive. ck
wowarsky’s studio in Aachen, some of
them specially converted to her needs.
To prevent the ACRYLITE from getting
too hot, she mounted an infusion hose
for cooling on her frontal grinder. “I
have gained a lot of experience of work-
www.piwowarsky.com
Design 7
Room size: 8´ x 17´ x 10´
Weight of ACRYLITE: 9,020 lbs
Number of bottles: 2,800
Fort Knox for Fine Wines
.
Californian wine cellar with a A glass of wine may glow in shades of a bank vault in several ways: the walls,
red, rosé or gold. Wine connoisseurs doors and countertops are all stainless
transparent design
worth their salt store these precious steel,” explains Pierre Miremont, owner
beverages in their own wine cellar, of Architectural Plastics.
where they are protected against envi- So the room has a similarity with Fort
ronmental influences like fluctuating Knox. Everything looked quite simple on
temperatures and sunlight. At the same the drawing board, but when it was time
time, the bottles are impressively pres- to begin fabrication and installation, the
ented. complications began. The builders had
A dark brick vault is lit by candlelight. assumed the room was perfectly square.
Heavy oak barrels stand against one of “Since there wasn’t supposed to be any
the walls. Opposite these, solid wooden space between the racks and because
shelves reach up to the ceiling. A thick they completely encompass the room,
layer of dust covers the dark-green and mathematically, it had to be as close to
brown bottles on the shelves. In the square as possible. Unfortunately, that
center of the room is a heavy wooden wasn’t the case,” Miremont says.
table. Every classical wine cellar, the el- One common way to fix the problem
dorado of the wine lover, looks very would have been shimming, or using
much like this. The only problem is that small fillers of similar material to fill
neither the owners nor visitors can see gaps between larger sections. However,
at a glance which rare vintages are con- using crystal clear acrylic made this im-
cealed on the shelves. The only way to do possible as the fillers would be easily
that is by taking a closer look at the label seen by anyone who walked into the
on each bottle, after removing it from vault. Since the designers couldn’t adapt
the shelf. the rack to the room, they adapted the
This dilemma gave a Californian con- room to the rack. “The construction
noisseur a bright idea. He was looking crew had to rebuild the room three times
for clear wine racks that would present to get it as close to square as possible,”
his collection in the best light rather than Miremont tells us.
concealing it. Although wood comes in
many colors, clear is not one of them. So A transparent titan
a material had to be found with the The wine rack had to fill a room 8´ x 17´
same structural integrity as wood, while x 10´ high and be able to house approxi-
still being transparent. The answer was mately 2,800 bottles. Most plastics can-
ACRYLITE®. not support this weight, and glass is not
impact-resistant enough for such quan-
The mountain comes to the tities. “We knew what we were looking
prophet for and decided on ACRYLITE because
It was not just the shelves that posed a of its strength, clarity and longevity for
challenge for the builders, but the cellar joint gluing. We have worked with
itself. “The room was meant to resemble Evonik Cyro for over 30 years and con-
ACRYLITE® as far as the eye can see: the transparent wine rack leaves no room for error. The edges of the racks reflect incident light.
8 Architecture
tinue to use them because of the quality trical equipment that ran from floor to
of their products,” Miremont says. More ceiling, in the empty spaces in the
than four tons of ACRYLITE were used corners between the wall racks. In order
for the wine vault. to remedy the situation, Architectural
Contained within the stainless steel Plastics used sand-blasted ACRYLITE
vault, wine racks rise up to the ceiling to construct L-shaped partitions to ob-
above the countertop than run around struct the wiring from view.
the whole room at hip height. Overhead, Finding innovative solutions took added
three bridges run left to right and hang time and effort, but the results showed
3´from the ceiling. The larger bridges, that all the hard work had been worth-
when full of wine bottles, weigh close to while. “The owner and everyone in-
1,400 pounds – about as much as a full- volved with the project were delighted
grown bison. They would have been with the finished wine cellar. Aesthet-
heavier still if made of glass. The hang- ically, it is amazing to stand in the room
ing giants are supported by stainless with the interplay of light and transpar-
steel brackets at the ceiling and the ends ent ACRYLITE. I would imagine it akin
of the bridges rest on wine racks at each to being on the inside of a diamond – a
wall. Below the countertop are various delight to experience the various facets
bins and drawers, all of which are also of the material as light travels through
designed in transparent ACRYLITE. it,” Miremont enthuses.
The only non-clear plastic parts in the Every time the Californian wine collec-
room are the slides on which the tor now invites friends over for a meal,
drawers move in and out. “People would he goes to the wine vault to fetch a select
come to watch us install the cellar over a vintage with a spring in his step. He
period of a month just to see the pro- smiles as he reaches purposefully for the
gress,” Miremont continues. “Although desired bottle. A place for everything,
the owner’s house was impressive in and and everything in its place. jh
of itself, no one had ever seen anything
like the ACRYLITE wine rack.”
Transparency is merciless
Crystal-clear material also has its draw-
backs: Nothing can be hidden behind it.
“In order to make sure there were no vis-
ible flaws, we had to accommodate field
realities,” continues Miremont. “Be-
cause everything was clear, there was no
margin for error and every flaw was vis-
ible.” One eyesore was the exposed elec-
www.acrylite.net
No chance for wine bottles to hide in this rack.
Architecture 9
Icicles of Light
.
Architects at the Berlin These lamps hang from the ceiling small as a lamp? "The small projects
like icicles and entice exhibition offer more scope for experiments. Apart
office of Barkow Leibinger
visitors to take a closer look. The light from that, we can examine whether an
Architekten are equally
shed by the ACRYLITE lamps is some- idea can be implemented on a larger
fascinated by details and times bright and sometimes dimmed. scale," Barkow explains. The research
the impressive bigger pic- Some of them glow with colored light. team at the firm of architects takes a
Visitors look up from below into the in- purely experimental view of these
ture. They find skyscrapers
terior of the lamp, admiring the shapes drafts. While they are planning, they do
just as exciting as delicate
that flow into each other. Each of these not let themselves be influenced by es-
lamps. Small-scale objects lamps is unique. tablished architectural standards and
provide ideas for large With his "Light Structure," architect existing construction projects. Without
Frank Barkow has developed a design respect for any conventions, they pro-
projects, making one-off
concept that presents lighting elements duce prototypes that gradually give rise
lamps a means of experi-
from a completely new angle. "We are to a collection of various architectural
menting with color and always researching to find new technol- components, which serve as a store of
light. ogies with which we can machine and ideas for subsequent projects.
form conventional materials in entirely
different ways," Barkow explains. The Preprogrammed shapes
architect and co-owner of the Berlin of- To produce the lamps, the architect
fice of Barkow Leibinger Architekten is chose clear ACRYLITE tubes, in shades
known for his original industrial and of- of Fluorescent Green, Green and Golden
fice buildings, such as the Trutec Build- Yellow, which were especially made for
ing, a high-rise office complex in Seoul this project by Evonik Röhm GmbH. A
that has a kaleidoscopic reflective fa- digital fabrication technique was chosen
çade. Since it was not clear at the time to fabricate the tubes. The special feature
the building was planned how the neigh- is the method of cutting the ACRYLITE
boring houses in the new part of the city tubes. The architects established on the
would be designed, the eleven-story computer how the cut edges of the indi-
house could not be adapted to its sur- vidual tubes were to be shaped. "Using
roundings. So the architects decided that the differently shaped cuts, we created a
it should be unabashedly self-referential, topographic surface on the underside of
mirroring and interpreting the neigh- the lamp that has varying heights and
borhood in its own way - an idea as depths. The tubes are sometimes longer,
simple as it is ingenious. sometimes shorter, cut at an angle or
But why do architects who are known for straight across," Barkow explains. The
their large buildings design something as difficulty lay in shaping the tubes so that
10 Light Design