Tensegrity Structures: Filling the Gap Between Art and Science

by Michele Melaragno, Univ of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, United States,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Spatial, Lattice and Tension Structures

Abstract:

Underlining the role of structuralism in contemporary architecture this paper addresses the application of structural morphology in the context of an educational experience. Focussing on the imaginative creations of B.Fuller, the tensegrity has been chosen as a conceptual prototype from which a morphology class could start a process of manipulation of ideas aiming to gap the scientific and the creative components of design. The abstract values of a geometrical composition are filtered through a process which eventually ends with physical structures in the context of an architectural program. Specifically the tensegrity considered as a modular space structure is explored first for the design of a peculiar urban composition that gives form to a vertical park that responds to a detailed program. Secondly, after the introduction of a case study The Georgia Dome, the class is exploring the tensegrity dome per se, understanding its vocabulary and applying it to specific solutions.

Subject Headings: Tensile structures | Tension members | Architecture | Space frames | Space structures | Geometrics | Space exploration | Georgia | United States

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