September 2003
New fountain unveiled in Berlin
Residents of the Märkisches Viertel area of Berlin recently celebrated the opening of a new public fountain in the neighbourhood. The fountain, which has been designed by Mark Braun Architekten with structural engineering by Buro Happold and Professor Hilbers, incorporates a unique sculpture by artist Stefan Laskowski.
The realisation of the sculpture for the client GESOBAU has involved Buro Happold engineers working closely with the artist to develop his design as the centrepiece of the fountain, which will form a new focal point for the lively north Berlin residential area.
The sculpture, rising five metres from the fountain, is based on a hollow steel bar framework clad in foam block and coated in glass reinforced plastic. The framework represented a particular challenge for the structural engineers at Buro Happold’s Berlin office, who used computer software to develop the structure from scanned images of physical models.
