Case Study

The city may pulsate.
But the cinema hall must not.

With a weight of 5,300 tonnes, the IMAX in London is a small heavyweight. The cinema, which was opened in 1999, features the largest screen in Great Britain, at 20 x 26 metres. The building was planned by architect Bryan Avery and has been awarded numerous prizes, including a Design Council Millennium Product Award in 1999 and the Civic Trust Award in 2000.

Situated in an extremely high-traffic location (in the middle of a roundabout), the cinema is exposed to permanent vibration. Multi-lane roads around the building with tracks running alongside, the underground running only 4 metres below, as well as the nearby Waterloo Station and ship traffic on the Thames all contribute to this exposure. Neither cinema audiences nor architect or structural engineer would want these vibrations to be transmitted into the building.

Together with the Avery Associates Architects team and our partner GERB, GRUEBER has developed tailor-made compression springs for these special requirements. These springs are components of the innovative and proven GERB Tuned Mass Damper Systems, which provide a safe and vibration-free basis for the building. When staying in London, the cinema experience is always worth a visit.