Engineering Library hosts class exhibition on German Thin Shells

The exhibition "Evolution of German Shells: Efficiency in Form," which celebrates and examines German thin-shell structural design, opened in late May and  continues through August and is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. The exhibition features thin-shell models which Princeton students constructed for the related course, "A Social and Multi-dimensional Exploration of Structures." The public is invited to attend.

The undergraduate course, CEE 463, co-taught by Sigrid Adriaenssens and Branko Glisicincluded a week-long field visit to Germany, where students visited landmark shell structures and met with architects and engineers involved in thin-shell construction. Germany was the birthplace of modern shell architecture in the 1920s and also where shell engineering is still the most advanced in the 21st century.

Princeton University CEE 463 Visit to the Mannheim Multihalle

"In engineering, students usually don't go on field trips but in other disciplines such as art and architecture, students are encouraged to go see the works of, for example, Monet or Le Corbusier," said Adriaenssens, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering.

Both Adriaenssens and Glisic, also an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, consider the field trip to have been a cornerstone of the class. "The goal of the Germany trip was to expose the students to real-life settings," Glisic said.

Adriaenssens said that another key goal of the Germany trip was to meet with the people who designed many of the buildings they visited. "Actually going to offices and seeing what engineers and architects do during the course of a work day was very revealing for our students," she said.

The original shell structures, inspired by forms found in nature such as eggshells, were made of concrete. However, today engineers and architects employ other materials such as wood and plastic or steel and glass.

Following their field trip to Germany, the students created models of the structures they studied using different techniques. Those models now form the exhibit in the Friend Center. The exhibit is free and open to the public, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The students also created short documentaries about five different structures: Balz HouseGroetzingen TheaterLeipzig MarkthalleMannheim Multihalle, and theMuseum of Hamburg History. Those films can be viewed here.