Moscow, Russia
American National Exhibition
Scope/Solutions
SGH collaborated with MIT in 1959 on the design of the American National Exhibition in Moscow. SGH’s structural design takes advantage of the characteristics of the plastic material to achieve a unique architectural effect and an efficient structural system. At the time, the reinforced plastic parasols constituted a technological advance in the application of plastics to structural building use.
The plastic parasols employ a fiber-reinforced resin composite with high strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios. The material was pultruded into shapes for the frames, exhibiting the material’s versatility for purposes of fabrication. The matrix plays a role in interlaminar shear strength under bending loads and in in-plane shear strength under torsional loadings.