Tensile structure
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A tensile structure is a building that is made from materials under tension — this could be a Cable net supporting a fabric or sheet material, or it could be made entirely from fabric. Most often used just for the roof of a building, it is a relatively new form of construction. An early use of a membrane-covered tensile structure is the truss-roofed exhibition pavilions for the Nizhny Novgorod Fair of 1896 by Vladimir Shukhov, and the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, constructed in 1958. The concept was later pioneered by German architect Frei Otto, who first used the idea in the construction of the German pavilion at Expo '67. Frei next used the idea for the roof of the Olympic Stadium for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
Steady technological progress has increased the popularity of fabric-roofed structures. The low weight of the materials makes construction easier and cheaper than standard designs, especially when vast open spaces have to be covered. Some recent tensile structures are the Millennium Dome in London, the Pontiac Silverdome, the Denver Airport, and the Mecca airport. Common materials for the fabric are Teflon coated fibreglass and PVC coated Polyester.
Air-supported structures are a form of tensile structures where the building envelope is under tension from and supported by pressurized air only.
See also
- Tensile architecture
- Vladimir Shukhov
- Frei Otto
- Hyperboloid structure
- [Gunnar Tibert. Numerical analyses of cable roof structures]
- [Elizabeth Oshima de Aguiar. Contribuição ao estudo de estruturas de cabos para coberturas de grandes áreas livres considerando as não-linearidades física e geométrica.]
Further reading
- "The Nijni-Novgorod exhibition: Water tower, room under construction, springing of 91 feet span", "The Engineer", № 19.3.1897, P.292-294, London, 1897.
- Horst Berger, Light structures, structures of light: The art and engineering of tensile architecture (Birkhäuser Verlag, 1996) ISBN 376435352
- Alan Holgate, The Art of Structural Engineering: The Work of Jorg Schlaich and his Team (Books Britain, 1996) ISBN 3930698676
- [Elizabeth Cooper English]: [“Arkhitektura i mnimosti”: The origins of Soviet avant-garde rationalist architecture in the Russian mystical-philosophical and mathematical intellectual tradition”,] a dissertation in architecture, 264 p., University of Pennsylvania, 2000.
- [Rainer Graefe]: [“Vladimir G. Šuchov 1853-1939 - Die Kunst der sparsamen Konstruktion.”], S.192, Stuttgart, DVA, 1990. [link]
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