Frank O Gehry

For a period of two years, Deform had the total responsibility for the planning, manufacturing, and fitting of the external facing of a conference centre in Berlin designed by Frank O Gehry, a world-famous architect who has created the well-known Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. The conference centre is part of a new building with offices and flats belonging to the DG Bank and is located just a stone-throw from Brandenburger Tor in central Berlin, with the American Embassy, Akademie der Künste, and the Adlon luxury hotel as its neighbours.
  

In the building there is a large atrium under an enormous glass roof and the conference centre is located in this atrium. Frank Geary has used a bio-amorphous sculpture for the outside of the conference centre, which reminds one of the perfect shape of a fish. The conference centre is rented for meetings and conferences of various types. As Berlin is a place where high-ranking representatives from many countries often meet, it is probable that many such meetings will be held in this centre. Deform has thus made a contribution to the practice of world politics.

This order is by far the largest that Deform has ever had and was very complicated. Some people said it would be impossible to manufacture, but the creation is now in position and the customer is fully satisfied with Deform's performance. The assignment involved manufacturing 304 stainless steel plates of various shapes and sizes, which were fitted exactly together to form a surface with an area of approx. 1,000 m2. Each plate was hot-formed in a special tool, one for each plate, and was then shaped using a template. The plates were then ground on the outside to produce a surface structure called "angel hair". A subcontractor, with considerable experience of similar assembly work, was used to fit the plates in position on site in Berlin.
  

The assignment took a longer time to finish compared to our original estimates because of all the unforeseen technical difficulties and events that took place during the whole project period. We did however manage to solve all the problems and today Deform's employees can be very proud of having produced something very special. The result will be very important for Deform in the future, concerning this type of production. Our success in this assignment means we have taken a big step in our development. Together with a number of subcontractors, we have finished a very large and complicated assignment in an overseas market.