Page 75 - Between light and shade

Light, transparency and reflection

surface is not, strictly speaking, achievable in
fabric.

You needed to be very open-minded in 1989
and bold, like Guido Ghisolfi 79 to agree to me
completely enveloping his Research Centre,
“M&G Ricerche” in Venafro [01/222, Fig. 40 and
71], in a closed textile structure (polyester-PVC).

The large enclosed space is cooled by fresh
air taken in at the same level as the water in the
surrounding lake.

This project was a success and enabled me
to subsequently design and occasionally create
other textile structures 80 including the Brussels-
Erasmus metro station with its fibreglass / PTFE
fabrics and transparent stainless steel mesh
facades [01/283, Fig. 72].

Aided by our powerful digital modelling tools,
it is interesting to start examining new forms
of “minimal surfaces” for membranes, whose

79 (1957-2015) Vice Chairman of the Mossi & Ghisolfi Group
founded in 1953 in Tortona, Italy by his father Vittorio. SINCO
Group, Tortona, Italy. All the more since there were no other
examples on earth at the time, other than Frei Otto’s Diploma-
tic Club, in Riyadh.

80 Water tower, national monument in Nouakchott, Maurita-
nia (p: 1989. 01/242) — Motorway service station, Wanlin
(p: 1994, c: 1995. 01/314) — Courtyard roof, Alden Biesen Castle
(p: 2001. 01/425) — Spy motorway service station (p: 2005,
c: 2007-2008. 01/497) — Belgian Pavilion in Shanghai (p: 2009.
01/555) — Bastogne Historical Centre, Mardasson (p: 2009.
01/557) — Glass canopy for the National Bank in Brussels
(p: 2012. 01/586). See www.samynandpartners.com.
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