Beyond Form (Venice Biennale)

The curator of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia, Alejandro Aravena, invited Werner Sobek to contribute to the exhibition at the Arsenale. The latter designed a textile-covered cuboid that is partially covered by a black cloth – “Beyond Form“. The cube has an edge length of 4.669 m, which corresponds to one of the two Feigenbaum constants that describe the transition of a non-linear system from regular to chaotic behaviour.

Climate Change as a Major Challenge for Humanity

The outer walls of the cube are printed with the final report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 2013 and describe the consequences of human-induced global warming in nine languages.

The sides of the cube consist of textile-covered wooden frames. Four planks, each with a cross-section of 40/200 mm, form the outer edge. The frames are stiffened by means of wire ropes with a diameter of 3 mm. By inclining the wooden planks by 45°, a direct connection of the individual wooden frames is possible in the contact areas. Furthermore, the twisting of the cross-sections causes an increase in stiffness in the direction of the textile covering and thus allows efficient cross-section utilisation. The basic support for the wooden frames consists of a support grid system with two supports per direction. This girder grid rests on steel supports at the four crossing points.