The Porsche pavilion in the Autostadt Wolfsburg, Germany

Abstract

The Porsche Pavilion is an innovative stainless steel construction using the principle, often used in ship and car design, as an advantage for building a light but stiff structure. As the new highlight of the Autostadt Wolfsburg the Pavilion was opened on June 12th 2012 to the public as an exhibition building for the new member of the Volkswagen concern, the traditional German sports car Porsche. The Pavilion is a one of a kind and outstanding construction that you can find. It fits right in the existing parts of the Autostadt within the lagoon landscape and was built in only eight months. With its curving lines and exiting bends the structure is an extraordinary work which was designed by Henn architects, Munich. The highly statically indeterminate monocoque shell was a challenge for the architects as well as for the designer. The calculation of the roof shell can only be performed with FE – program because of the very complex geometry and load cases. Extensive wind tunnel test were performed to analyse the actual wind load for the structure. The monocoque has a good balance between material and support structure. The roof is supported on floating elastomeric bearings to reduce stress created from constraint forces such as temperature. The stiffness is achieved by the upper and lower side sheathing plates and the intermediate formers. Also the roof shell has no joints and a smooth surface. On the inside of the showing room, there is a ramp for the spectators which is also roofed with the polygon shell. The polygon shell is a traditional steel structure. Typical beam types out of steel were used to support the structure. All building parts were supported by the reinforced concrete structure which you will not see standing in front or inside the building. The concrete structure consists basically out of the foundation and the inner wall. The whole construction process was very challenging as well. The welding of the sections as well as the construction welds on site were performed precisely carried out to match all section parts. The assembling of the structure requires a large time and effort cost due to many welds which are necessary to connect all section to one large shell.