Скачать или смотреть Cloud-like building features in new Rome convention centre

(20 Jul 2016) LEAD-IN:
A Roman neighbourhood once associated with Mussolini's fascist regime has a new building for the 21st century.
The EUR Convention centre is a steel and glass cloud, which can host 1,800 people in its suspended auditorium.

STORY LINE:
Welcome to the 'Cloud'... Rome's latest 'big sky thinking' architecture star.
It's just one section of the new EUR convention centre, located in the southern end of Rome.
The steel and glass structure was created by Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas.
The building has an overall capacity of almost 8,000 people who can be hosted in various conference rooms.
Fuksas says his true clients are the people who use the building.
"Important buildings are essential and useful. A city without important buildings hasn't its goal and loses the reason to exist. The structure we are building is for the people, for all of us. Our real customer is the human being".
The congress centre is made of a big box made of steel and glass - the 'Theca' which is 40 metres high, 70 metres wide and 175 metres long. Inside is the suspended 'Cloud' which conceals a wooden auditorium for seating 1800 people.
In addition there is a 440 room 'Blade' hotel, clad in black glass.
The congress centre takes its name from the Mussolini-era modern EUR neighbourhood. The large white buildings of the Rome Universal Exposition, known by its Italian acronym EUR, were conceived by the Italian dictator as a monument to fascism.
EUR is home to some of the most representative buildings in Fascist architecture, such as the Palazzo della Civilta Italiana, an arched building dubbed the "Square Colosseum," and the Palazzo dei Congressi, an imposing structure with a large colonnaded base topped by a sort of half-dome.
Conceived in the late 1930s to host the 1942 Universal Exposition of Rome, or EUR, Mussolini wanted exposition to represent the new Rome and to compare in grandeur with projects by Nazi architect Albert Speer in Germany.
But World War II began and EUR was never completed. Only a few buildings were finished out of the more than a dozen conceived by architect Marcello Piacentini. The quarter was then refurbished for the Rome 1960 Olympics.
Officially known as the EUR convention centre, the new iconic building already has a catchy nickname, the 'Cloud'.
The architect says that great buildings reflect their time in history.
"In the world there will always be a need for works that represent the civilisation of that time. Otherwise we would lose trace of everything," says Fuksas.
The cloud is wrapped in fibreglass, a feat carried out by a team of workers on ropes and pulleys.
"The idea of the bridge. The fact that it is a box of glass and the fact that this cloud is literally suspended and you can't see the structure. But you can see it from inside. We did not hide it. From the inside the cloud you will see all the ribs. The sequence of ribs is fascinating, as it was to see the workers installing them. The (fibreglass) textile wrapping the cloud has been installed by an acrobatic workers team."
Fuksas says the construction process was long and steep especially due to the lack of public funds.
Italy, like many countries in Europe, was severely hit by the global economic crisis and several big infrastructure projects were delayed.
One of the victims was the 'Cloud', which won a public tender in 1998. Building began in 2007, but was hit by delays.
The current Italian government, led by prime minister Matteo Renzi, found new funds and prioritised its construction.
The building is made from 37,000 tons of steel and iron and 58,000 square metres of glass.

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