In 1995, being the first international success, Volker P. Kranich established a huge decorative glass dome outshining the foyer of the famous Hotel Adlon in Berlin. The glass dome in detail
The artful dome in the centre of the foyer, directly positioned up above the large fountain, creates a voluminous sense of space. A great deal of light is directed into the hall.
Cobalt-blue flashed glasses with silver-yellow painting in combination with frosted (sandblasted) glass and casted glass stars achieve a highly tasteful and exclusive ambiance.
The dome has a diameter of about 7.40 m. In the sub-structure of the dome, in the four segmental arches (altogether about 16 square meters) there is incorporated a 24 carat gold mosaic. This mosaic consists of 2 x 2 cm separate pieces (approx. 40.000 units), which were brought in piece by piece in manual work
The dome structure is built by eight individual steel elements. Each element consists of twelve individual stained glass segments. For the steel structure Volker P. Kranich was working closely together with a renowned metal construction company in his hometown - this allowed direct and quick decisions and arrangements.
More than 180 individual glass stars are mechanically fastened on the surface of the frosted glasses. These stars were specially designed and hand-crafted (casted and high-shiningly polished) for this dome.
The painting and structure of the dome are held in neo-classical style. The winged lions (chimeras) and eagles are taken from prehistory. For the constitution of the figures in a first step the blue flashed glasses were sandblasted - so only the clear glass remained. Secondly, these glasses were painted with silver stain (a special colour known since 12th century). In further painting steps, the glasses were shaded and contoured and each layer of colours had separately been burnt into the glass.
After cutting all individual glass pieces, they were assembled by hand. This operation is called "leading" - "verbleien"
All production steps were handled by us - designing the plan templates, steel construction, cutting, painting, plastering, creation of the mosaic as well as installation on site - the entire project was executed in our response.
