No_8_August_1968 — Page 12

KNUL ZÁLEŽÍ

Netherlands pavilion at Expo '67

Exposition building wins Reynolds award

AN exposition building suspended within a cage of aluminum tubing has won for its designers the 1968 R.S. Reynolds Memorial Award for "significant archi- tecture in which aluminium has been an important con- tributing factor.”

The building is the Netherlands Pavilion, a space frame structure built for Expo 67 and now a part of Montreal's successor exposition, Man and His World. The award recipients are Walter Eijkelenboom and Abraham Middelhoek, partners in a Rotterdam, firm and architects for the pavilion, and George F. Eber of Montreal, associate architect.

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The Netherlands Pavilion was cited by an AIA jury because of its success in putting technology "into service of human needs,” with the "human functions" of the exposition itself determining the building design.

"The drama of this building

is achieved entirely through the intrinsic nature of its design rather than the imposition of superficial forms," the jury re- port said. "The jury was also impressed by the pro- mise the space frame system developed for this build- ing offers for future structural application. The small, lightweight component parts make up a building unit module (like a brick or a block) that can be arranged to permit almost infinite configurations."

Design of the structure permits it to be disas- sembled, moved and re-erected in a new location. So flexible is the building design that its shape can be changed to accommodate a great variety of require-

ments.

An eye-catching feature of the building is the cantilevered section which juts out 45 ft. over a road- way without any supports underneath.

The basic nodule of the building is a three-too. cube formed by round aluminum tubing with flattened ends inserted into connector slots. No welding or riveting is required. There are 57,000 individual pieces of tubing, each approximately 3 ft. long, totaling about 35 miles of tubing. A small amount of the tubing in areas of highest stress is made of steel.

This "cocoon" structure weighs only 100 tons,

but supports the roof, floor and walls of the exposition building. No columns are used within the building. The building walls inside the space frame are a “sand- wich" of asbestos and gypsum board, the floors are pre-cast concrete with a wood cover, and the roof is steel deck. The concrete foundation is covered with imported Dutch brick. The pavilion provides 23,000 sq. ft. of floor space.

12th FIG Congress to be held in London

THE 12th Congress of the Federation Interna- tionale des Geometres (International Federation of Surveyors) will be held in London next September.

Under the theme of The Surveyor's Contribution To Human Progress, the Congress will entail as many as 170 addresses put to the nine study commissions into which the Congress will divide itself.

The nine study commissions are grouped in threes. Group A will cover professional arrangements, education and literature; Group B takes cadastre, rural land management, survey instruments, methods and practice; and Group C takes urban land systems, town planning, development, valuation and management.

The subjects of the Congress will also include automation in cartography, the use of computers and experience in building new towns.

Tallest tower wins top award for design

THE NSW Chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects has awarded the 1967 Sulman Medal to Harry Seidler and Associates for designing the Australia Square project in Sydney, the tower of which is Australia's tallest building.

The Sulman Medal is given annually to a build- ing other than a house and is the highest architectural award in the State.

The 60-storey Australia Square building (Far East Builder, Oct. 1967) is 562 ft. high and dominates Sydney's skyline. It has a revolving restaurant on the 47th floor.

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Far East BUILDER, August 1968.

O.P.G. Paris GE 10