Conrad Roland

Conrad Roland ( born 1934 in Munich as Conrad Roland Lehmann ) is a German architect and pioneer of the construction of space systems which are mainly found as rope climbing frames on playgrounds. For the Federal Garden Show 1987, he constructed the largest to date -dimensional network in the world, the Super Four Mast Spacenet in Dusseldorf.

Life and work

Conrad Roland completed after high school as a carpenter. From 1954 to 1963 he studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich, the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and at the TU Berlin. It was during his study years 1959 to 1961 employees in the office of Mies van der Rohe in Chicago.

Since 1963 Conrad Roland worked independently in Berlin, he worked mainly studies, projects and documentations about hanging houses and space networks. The plans for the construction of a sports stadium in Abu Dhabi, which he developed together with the architect Joern -Peter Schmidt -Thomsen in the 1960s, though won the tender competition, but were never realized.

The topic of spatial network architecture, it also deepened with his book release " Frei Otto - spans " (1965). A grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago, made ​​the work possible in this monograph. 1967 Roland was a guest lecturer at Portsmouth, in 1967 and 1969, he lectured on " hanging houses" in Canada and the United States.

From 1970 onwards, the architect devoted reinforced the development of game - space networks. For the remarks on this design principle, he received several awards at home and abroad. In 1974, he founded the company " Conrad Roland Spielbau ", the planned 1974-1985 Spacenets and built. The successor company COROCORD room Netz GmbH still carries the initials of his name in the company name.

1975 was the Super Two Mast Spacenet for the Federal Garden Show in Mannheim.

For the Federal Garden Show in Dusseldorf in 1987 constructed the Roland to date largest space network in the world, the Super Four Mast Spacenet in Southpark Dusseldorf, which even today is after a renovation in 2007.

Mostly developed the architect playground equipment for the playground area. In his publications, such as the patent to " Spatial Networks " 1974 Conrad Roland made ​​but always the many uses for spatial network aware, for example, for multi-level sun terraces, trellises, summer houses, beach and exhibition pavilions, or as a framework for exhibition and retail space, seat - and deck areas as well as for working scaffolds.

Since 1987 Conrad Roland lives in Hawaii, USA.

Works

• Conrad Roland: Frei Otto - spans. Ideas and attempts to lightweight construction. A workshop report by Conrad Roland. Ullsteinhaus, Berlin, Frankfurt / Main and Vienna 1965.