ABSTRACT
The first example is the well known “Kunsthaus Graz” with its curved façade and point fixing representing Light, colour, form and surface. This “Kunsthaus Graz” was built in the heart of the historic city of Graz, Austria, with a very special architecture. The hull of the building was made of a plastic material called Plexiglas, assembled by thousands of sheets. Those sheets were all formed in a different way. The façade is used as a media façade with some backlight and can bring the topic of the building to the face of the building. The second sample is the Oskar-von-Miller Tower in Munich. The foot print of the building is oval with rising radii from the top to buttom. In the 45m high façade every sheet is formed in a different way. Very important for the high wind load and different climates is the fixing of the huge sheets. The Reiss façade is a milled structure which is supported in a notch. The LED lightning is also integrated in the façade. The last sample is a façade made out of tubes in Spain. To allow the thermal elongation the tubes are clamped on a special way. 2 MATERIAL PLEXIGLAS The material Plexiglas is an acrylic material, chemically Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). It is a very weather resistant material that can be used in direct weathering without any coating. Compared to other plastic material it is the best one for direct exposure. The transparency of Acrylic material can be better than from glass. For sheet material there are mainly two manufacturing processes, extrusion and cell cast.
