Dome houses Made in Berlin exhibition

Zendome and partners craft an identity for Berlin designers in Italy.

Berlin, UNESCO’s City of Design for 2006, has a new creative ambassador in the form of the Berlin Design Dome. The dome was created to house the Made in Berlin exhibition at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan, a trade show for furniture and interior design. The dome, designed by Susanne Philippson and Zendome, was built to invoke Berlin’s television tower, a recognizable symbol from the city’s skyline. For a week in April, the structure housed works from several German creative firms, including Bjorn Meier, Ett la benn, Reuber Henning and Flip Sellin.

The fabric used in the dome is Ferrari Precontraint® 502. In order to create the complex outer skin, fabricators plotted computer-animated sections with 2-D cutters and then welded them to make them water-tight. The finished product is 14 meters (46 feet) across and 8 meters (26 feet) high, with the total height including antenna reaching 18 meters (59 feet).

Zendome worked with Berlin design offices Hidden Fortress, System 180 and Coordination Berlin, as well as partnering with design initiative Create Berlin and the DMY International Design Festival Berlin 2008. The goal of the project was to highlight Berlin as an international and sustainable city of design at one of the world’s top trade fairs.

“We want to communicate the creative potential of the city,” said Gordian Overschmidt, one of Zendome’s managing directors. “We want it to be realized very explicitly and confirm this reputation abroad.”