Kinetic Umbrella

Project Coordination
Jonas Schikore, Prof. Dr. Pierluigi D'Acunto (Professorship of Structural Design, TUM)

Project Partners
Prof, Dr.-Ing. Eike Schling (Department of Architecture, HKU)

Industry Partners
Thomas Brandl (Erhard BRANDL GmbH & Co. KG)
Gepotex GmbH
Facturee

Student Team
Merlin Bieling, Frederic Chovghi, Sebastian Dietrich, Sebastian Hoyer, Clemens Lindner, Maria Rau, Fabian Matella, Sanziana Maximeasa, Sarah Sendzek, Tao Sun, Frauke Wilken

Sponsors
Dr. Marschall Stiftung
Sto Stiftung
ARI / Architectural Research Incubator

The Kinetic Umbrella is an elastically convertible lattice structure. The asymptotic, rotationally symmetrical lattice structure consists of 32 slender glass fibre slats (8x80 mm), which are connected upright by uniaxial scissor joints. The louvre has a high resistance to external loads and can still change its shape as required. Using ring ropes and a winch the 6 metre high lattice structure can be deformed into a cantilevered funnel with a span of 8 metres. The lattice bars are bent uniaxially (weak louvre axis) and twisted. A textile sun protection system follows the elastic mechanism. It consists of 800 individual textile strips, each 5mm wide. The strips are held in position by means of aluminium strips. The alignment of the tapes in the direction of the louvres enables the textile system to be formed almost without stretching. The tapes were specially developed for the project and are characterised by suitable stretching properties and high durability for outdoor use

The Kinetic Umbrella is located on the outdoor area of "Import-Export", a cultural event organiser in Munich's creative quarter.