The new multi-purpose hall sits in the presentday landscape of the Aviation Park. Despite the sizable building volume and the 5000 car parking spaces required, interference in the natural landscape was to be kept to an absolute minimum. The project was therefore integrated in ist setting as a freestanding building in a way that recalls Cracow’s traditional Kopiec landscape and conceals the car-parking spaces. The latter, along with the ancillary functions of the arena, were placed in an artificial hillock that the spectators walk up in order to reach the main entrances. From the entrances, one arrives in aspacious foyer that accommodates the evening box office, cloakrooms, and sanitary facilities. The foyer then tapers, like the stream of visitors, in the direction of the stands and the staircases. The asymmetry of the foyer is matched by the
asymmetrical character of the seating tiers for the public. This layout allows the stage to be sensibly positioned to suit the different uses, ranging from theatre productions to sporting events, and optimises the audience’s view of the stage.

The project represents a building system using steel for the main structure, emphasizing sustainability and adaptability to different and changing needs. On the basis of a rectangular building with a footprint of 316 m², all features of the method are demonstrated:
– Innovation in steel construction and assembly
– Integrated sustainable ventilation and HVAC-concept
– Flexibility of room sizes and room organization
– Repeatability of the building and response to urban functions (adjustment of ground floors)

In conjunction with Leipzig’s application to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, Schulitz Architects designed a sports hall for athletics and judo for standard use and swimming / waterpolo during the 2012 Olympics.

The historic old town of Neubrandenburg is characterised by a pattern of rectilinear block edge development, consisting mostly of residential accommodation and, along the more major streets, shops on the ground floor level. However, these shops are being negatively affected by competition from new shopping centres in the outlying districts. In response to this situation, a specialty store was to be planned on an incomplete block along the city walls between Turmstrasse and Neu-
torstrasse, in order to provide a centre that would attract passing customers for the shops. Our design completes the block along Neutorstrasse while maintaining an appropriate distance from the Neutor. A single-storey building placed in the interior of the block restores the street space of the Ringstrasse (ring road). The second level of the specialty store is placed on top of this volume. This storey, elliptical in shape, is separated from the
block perimeter with a low A/V relationship and, reflecting its special function, has a special form, without, however, abandoning the fundamental urban planning principle.

The requirement was for a canopy roof employed as a basic additive form with a striking appearance that, by means of repetition and its strong colouring and in conjunction with the modular service containers, would give the main axes of the EXPO grounds both continuity and identity. The form is determined by the performance required for the short period during which the canopy is used. All the connections in this light minimised structure are bolted. All parts are prefabricated in the works and, along with the foundations, could be taken down after the EXPO without causing any damage and used again elsewhere. The mem-
branes, made of environmentally friendly cotton, are intended to last for just one summer.The principle of the structure is convincingly simple: 4 double curved membrane surfaces on a square plan are spanned between steel sections that are stabilised against wind pressure and suction by means of tension and compression rods. Each canopy covers an area of 7.50 metres x 7.50 metres. The membrane surfaces are fixed linearly to edge beams and are post-tensioned by the process of fixing to the main beam. These beams also serve as gutters to lead rainwater runoff into a down pipe placed within the three-dimensional column.Each canopy can be coupled with further elements by means of bolted metal plates to create either linear or spreading forms. Makrolon coverings that extend beyond the edge beams
ensure that rain cannot enter through the connecting sections.

Since Hall 8/9 is differently and more centrally positioned on the EXPO site than Hall 13, a symmetrical building form was required. The structure of the light fish-belly shaped girders was supplemented by curved grid shells hung between them, functioning primarily as a hanging roof but also developing their shell
effect to handle horizontal and unevenly distributed loads. The character of the hall is shaped by the intensive consideration of three issues – energy, ventilation, and lighting – combined with the construction and the building form. The form of the roof with its hanging shells assists the thermal effect and the natural escape of hot air during the summer. At the highest point there are adjustable ventilation louvres that regulate the flow. A guiding panel above these louvres improves the air flow by means of the Venturi effect, while at the same time protecting the opening from rain. Being south-facing and having the air flow behind them, these building elements offer ideal conditions for photovoltaic modules. The northward roof surfaces are glazed at the steepest and highest part of the hall, which is thus lit entirely by diffused light. The relationship between the distance separating the skylights and the height of the space is about 1.5, which achieves an even daylight quotient of over 10 percent.

The site of the EXPO trade fair hall, with the main east–west avenue of trees in the north and a adjacent low-rise housing development in the south, led to a form for the hall that is dramatically directed towards this avenue. A low height service and storage spine provides the transition to the scale of the housing development in the south. The exposition hall, which measures 105 x 240 metres, is intended to be used for sporting events as well as for exhibitions and there-
fore has to be free of internal columns. So that the hall could be erected in a way that uses resources sparingly despite this requirement, we minimised the structure stepwise with regard to the amount of both material and labour required. In this respect, a cat-enary curve and an arch seemed sensible.