STRUCTURAL MEMBRANES 2023

PumpItUp, gite mobile for the European cultural capital Esch-sur-Alzette

  • Stimpfle, Bernd (formTL GmbH)

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Esch-sur-Alzette in Luxembourg was Capital of Culture 2022, together with Novi Sad in Serbia and Kaunas in Lithuania. Under the motto "Remix Culture", the city presented the cultural mix of the region and combined the old industrial culture with the new. One of the projects for Esch 2022 is the Minette Trail, an approximately 90 km long hiking trail in the south of Luxembourg through the former industrial region. As overnight accommodation, 11 "Kabaisercher" have been planned by various teams of architects. One of these hostels is PumpItUp. It is a pneumatic mobile shelter. The pneumatic shell is on a trailer with two foldable wings. The shelter is set up and dismantled several times, at different locations. The pneumatic envelope forms a spherical shape from two layers of membrane, coupled at many nodes with synthetic fibre ropes. This paper presents the project form the design to the fabrication and installation.