Walk-in art – Spherical house

Art to look at, touch and walk on

For the EMSCHERKUNST 2013, the Berlin artist Reiner Maria Matysik created the artwork “River becomes cloud” at the mouth of the Emscher into the Rhine. The artwork consists of a cloud machine and a building made of spheres. The highlight of the artwork is that the soap bubble-like structure is used as a walk-in art installation.

Here, where today the Emscher still plunges several meters into the Rhine, the artist now uses a cloud machine to make the Emscher rise into the air. Visitors can learn all about these airy structures in a residential architecture that looks like a cloud with its spheres – and stay here overnight. In his cloud architecture, the artist has created an overnight accommodation for two people in an airy loft bed.

The following demands were placed on the artwork and fulfilled by ACCENTFORM.

The spherical enclosures were planned with a diameter of 4.0 m and 2.50 m. With these ball sizes, it was possible to achieve cost-effective production, as ACCENTFORM has production molds for these ball dimensions. Each sphere bubble was created as a separate structure, with dividing lines only at the joints between the spheres. Three large structures were created from the 4m spheres.

The seamless creation of the individual spheres was advantageous, as no images of segment divisions were visible on the surface.

A disadvantage was the large individual part dimensions of up to 4 meters. This meant that the pre-assembled ball house had to be transported to the mouth of the Emscher into the Rhine using a special transporter. Both the building inspectorate and the structural analysis of the construction required the spheres to withstand a defined load. Superimposed loads are defined as loads from rain, snow, wind or people. ACENTFORM carried out a self-test by having several employees stand on the structure, which demonstrated a load of 800 kg.

The performance of the GRP material is particularly evident in the ratio of the sphere size of 4 meters to the wall thickness of just 5 mm.

From the outside, the spheres have been painted with a water-based facade paint. Inside, the ball house was sealed with a topcoat application. This technique ensures a reproducible smooth surface for all subsequent formwork oil treatments.

Further descriptions:

• Corrosion resistant
• Low weight
• inexpensive
• Work of art, art
• High strength
• Rot-free
• Maintenance-free
• Chemically resistant
• Anti-magnetic
• Free-form surface
• Ball house

Project details