The art project, planned since the 1970s between Christo and his partner Jeanne-Claude, who died in 2009, can be described as follows: 200,000 high-density polyethylene cubes formed a floating bridge on Lake Iseo. 70,000 square metres of fabric lanes were spread over them. The bridge connected the mainland with two small islands. All in all, the bridge covered a distance of three kilometres at a width of 16 metres. After the piece of art was complete, visitors were allowed to walk across the floating bridge for 16 days.
For his project, Christo needed about 90,000 sqm of fabric that was newly developed for this cause. The special fabric was ordered from Setex-Textil GmbH in Greven, a purchaser of Neuenhauser batch winders. The newly developed fabric, which had to be particularly robust, colour-proof, water-proof and dirt-repellent, was woven on Picanol looms and wound on Neuenhauser ascending batch winders. The Neuenhauser winders specifically designed for large fabric widths permit winding these very wide fabrics without folds and without losing quality at the lengths this mammoth project requires.
The "floating piers" are not the first project of Christo to which Neuenhauser contributed. Every metre of fabric that was used for the famous projects of Christo und Jeanne-Claude – such as the "Wrapped Reichstag", "shrouded trees" and "The Gates" was wound on winders from Neuenhaus as well.
