Monday, January 4, 2010

Garmisch-Partenkirchen olympic ski jump

I can't even begin to pronounce the name of the city this jump is located in but it is amazing. I watch a lot of Universal Sports these days because they have a lot of pre-olympic coverage of really bizarre and interesting Winter Olympic sports. Lots of figure skating, luge, bobsled, and various categories of skiing mostly. What has caught my eye the most is the Four Hills tournament for ski jumping. What these athletes are doing is amazing, and even more amazing is the beautiful piece of sculpture built for them to compete on.











It's such a weird sight to see coming out of the mountains, and the sculpted cantilevered design is so interesting. I love the exposed beams on the bottom, and how the lift in the middle of the landing pad is so thin and seems to float right off the mountain. A good write up can be found here and the architecture firm who designed it can be found here.

my favorite part of the write up is:
"Topographic integration links up with sculptural expressiveness, giving the new jump in Garmisch-Partenkirchen its unique characteristic appearance. At the same time, its architectural impression and formal dynamics also invites associations with the risk and acceleration of the ski-jumping sport. The quest to overcome gravitation, inherently linked with ski jumping, is architecturally expressed by the cantilevering inrun of the ski jump."

This is a wonderful execution of the design of a form being visually meaningful for its purpose.

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