IASS ISLER PRIZE

2021-2023 / gypsum / ETH Zürich

The IASS Isler prize was designed and manufactured within my position at Block Research Group at ETH Zürich. The Trophy is awarded biennially by the international association for structural and spatial shell constructions - in short, IASS.

It’s design celebrates the form finding methods used by Swiss engineer and architect Heinz Isler (1926-2009) who is acknowledged for his extraordinary experimental approach to the design of shell structures.

The physical models in all their different scales and materials represented the core of his engineering practice. Thanks to Isler’s original documents stored at the gta archives (ETH Zürich), the trophy was conceived and manufactured by carefully following his methodology.

The form finding method of the hanging membrane was used to define its shape, which represents his famous tennis shell structures in the scale of 1:300.

The delicate trophy is entirely made out of gypsum with the thickness of the shell measuring below 1mm.

ETH Zürich

Stefan Liniger
Dr. Giulia Boller
Prof. Dr. Philippe Block