This ‘historic chalet’ was built in 1874 and is the former residence of the  Amrein-Troller family.  It is now a musem displaying many interesting historical facts (in particular the historical geology) of the region.

The Kultur-und Kongresszentrum or Culture and Convention Centre when translated into English is more commonly known as the KKL Centre.

The KKL Centre was a project of French architect Jean Nouvel and built between the years 1995 to 2000.

The Culture and Convention Center in Lucerne is composed of three parts: a concert hall, conference rooms with an auditorium and a museum of contemporary art.

The idea was to play with a horizontal plane as canopy linking the different spaces that are lined up below. This form on the elevation level of the lake covered a large urban area with a water element. The metaphor refers to three ships docked in the lake under the huge deck.

The construction was a major challenge because of the overhang that reaches 45 meters on the diagonal, with a height of 21 meters. This represents the most architecturally unique building, which ‘float’ light and elegant between land and sky, and gives the area a peaceful atmosphere.

The roof was designed to harmonize with a horizontal center of the lake, inviting visitors to spend some time abroad.

Faced with the impossibility of building the center on water, Nouvel decided to enter the lake in the building, creating two channels of low depth that operate within the complex. The water was channeled into the three parts of the building at the same level as the Plaza Europa.

The tech behind the structure:

In choosing the form of the large roof overhang and structural economic influence. A web of steel plate girders were included to strengthen the high slope in the northeast corner. With a maximum height of 3.7 meters beam, falling almost to zero at the edge of the roof, it was possible to achieve a cantilever beam of 45 meters.

A major challenge was how to ensure continuity at the intersection of three beams of 2.5 meters. The engineers used an innovative concept for linking the main diagonal beams to allow a continuous distribution of bending throughout the structure, uninterrupted by the joints. Diagonal beams were organized to achieve large holes in the main beams. Linkages were established with neck bolts using HSFG soldier.

As the wind is the most important cargo solicitation on the roof, their behavior was studied in a wind tunnel using a 1:200 scale model. Different parts of the structure were tested in a laboratory compared to storms, earthquakes, fires, depletion and degradation. The long-term performance of the roof is guaranteed by an extensive program of inspection and maintenance. To access the interior of the roof is designed especially removable plates.

From Wiki:

The Church of St. Leodegar (German: St. Leodegar im Hof or Hofkirche St. Leodegar) is the most important church and a landmark in the city of Lucerne, Switzerland. It was built in parts from 1633 to 1639 on the foundation of the Roman basilica which had burnt in 1633. This church was one of the few built north of the Alps during the Thirty Years War and one of the largest and art history rich churches of the German late renaissance period.

In 1874 the parish church of St. Leodegar was founded and with that the church became simultaneously a monastery church and parish church, as it is today.

]]> http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2013/08/19/architecture-100-36-hofkirche-st-eodegar/feed/ 6 http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2013/08/15/architecture-100-35-the-chapel-bridge/ http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2013/08/15/architecture-100-35-the-chapel-bridge/#comments Thu, 15 Aug 2013 07:59:53 +0000 CherryPie http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/?p=11231

I was greeted with this delightful view whilst walking to dinner on my first evening in Lucerne.

The view was a treat from Mr C who did his usual reconnaissance exercise to find the best places to dine. During his explorations he found the perfect walking route to surprise me with this view.  Whilst he was scouting the area I was having a nice relaxing bath to recover from our earlier flight hassles

In all my visits to Paris over the years I have never seen Notre Dame without scaffolding. It is normally the building itself that is covered in scaffolding but this time as you can see it was in front of the building. A temporary structure is being built for the Cathedral’s anniversary celebrations next year, it will allow visitors to see the front of the building and its features more easily.

My previous posts on Ightham Mote can be found here.