Salvador Dalí Museum in Florida, USA

The architectural highlight is the "Enigma", a glazed atrium that drapes over the side of the boxy reinforced concrete building. The structural analysis of this unique steel-glass construction was carried out with RSTAB by Novum Structures, a customer of Dlubal Software.

Structure

The "Enigma" is a steel‑tube construction comprising more than 900 triangular glass panels. They form the protruding bulges. No two glass panels within the curving glass structures are identical so they provide a truly unique view of St. Petersburg’s picturesque waterfront.

The builders had to solve a mystery (Latin: Enigma) of how to shape, engineer, and hang the transparent structure. They achieved this with the fragile-looking glass structure, which is 75.5 ft at its tallest, 105 ft at its widest, and 27.5 ft at its deepest. It should withstand hurricane-force winds and windborne debris.

HOK’s architect Weymouth calls the Novum system a visual diagram of the way the structure performs, because the triangles get tighter in places of the greatest stress.

In 2010, HOK received the Novum Design Excellence Award for its iconic design of the Salvador Dalí Museum.