From Soap Skin to Perfect Form: The Stuttgart Chalice Supports
A recently released film by Deutsche Bahn impressively explains the engineering origins of the chalice supports for Stuttgart’s new main station – our project manager Angelika Schmid is one of the key protagonists in this film. Werner Sobek is responsible for the structural engineering of the unique load-bearing structures made of light-coloured fair-faced concrete that support the roof of the approx. 447 m long and 80 m wide hall of the new underground station.
The goblet supports were designed by Christoph Ingenhoven, who won the competition for the redesign of Stuttgart’s main railway station in 1997. At that time, the shape was determined with the help of soap skin – but the calculation of the actually built geometries was then of course carried out with the latest calculation methods. Not only in terms of design, but also in terms of planning and execution, absolutely new ground was broken.
