lights

The tensegrity space frame light is comprised of a four strut lamp module whose geometry is the derivative of a cube. It affords a stable platonic structure with the ability to orthogonally tessellate in the x,y.z axes without change to its orientation to produce generic architectural elements such as: columns, roofs, walls and beams. Because tensegrity yields a system of structural correlation, moment force is eliminated and makes way for a high strength to weight ratio; as the system’s surface area increases, to a greater extent so too does its rigidity, allowing for generous spans and cantilevers. When arrayed, each consecutive module is pinned to the latter using its lamp connector to fasten to the mid point of an adjacent electrical tendon. The uniform array produces two distinct patterns of lamp and lattice. Where the lamps produce a luminous weave that at times resembles an orthogonal grid of offset lines, the lattice generates a sequential pattern of two distinct squares rotated at 45 degrees, one four times the size of the other.

Needle Tower
“Inspired by architect Buckminster Fuller’s interest in the geometry of structure, Snelson’s experiments led to a prototype for a “floating compression structure.” Fuller subsequently credited Snelson with having invented a new structural principle which the architect named tensegrity, a contraction of the words tension and integrity.
These investigations into the physical properties of structure became more fully realized as an art form beginning in the 1950s. Snelson created sculptures consisting of tubes and cables. Cylinders of steel seemingly dance through space in defiance of gravity, yet it is the structural competition between tension and compression which underlies their construction. Snelson finds beauty in bringing these forces of nature into balance: the rigid compression tubes pushing outward, the flexible tension cables pulling inward. His sculptures would maintain their structural integrity beyond gravity, in the vacuum of outer space.” Joelle Burrows

Entropia
Entropia est une performance audio-visuel initiée par le travail de Fraction sur la spatialisation sonore 3D et rejoint par les artistes LP St Arnault, Nature Graphique et la création ex nihilo afin d’explorer une représentation esthétique d’un système entropique, en rendant hommage au travail de l’architecte Richard Buckminster Fuller. L’oeuvre basée sur une sphère geodesique  audioréactive interragit en permancen avec les projection de visuels immersifs et le son.

Tensegrity Sphere

Sixty-Strut Tensegrity Sphere by Buckminster Fuller is both a feat of engineering and an object of beauty. Wire individually snakes through sixty stainless steel tubes, suspending them in a icosahedral (20 face) form. Tensional integrity, or tensegrity – a term coined by Fuller – is a structural-relationship principle.

The Blur Building (an architecture of atmosphere)
The Blur Building is a media pavilion for Swiss EXPO 2002 at the base of Lake Neuchatel in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland.From piles in the water, a tensegrity system of rectilinear struts and diagonal rods cantilevers out over the lake. Ramps and walkways weave through the tensegrity system, some of them providing a counterweight for the structure. The form is based on the work of Buckminster Fuller.The pavilion is made of filtered lake water shot as a fine mist through 13,000 fog nozzles creating an artificial cloud that measures 300 feet wide by 200 feet deep by 65 feet high. A built-in weather station controls fog output in response to shifting climatic conditions such as temperature, humidity, wind direction, and wind speed.The public can approach Blur via a ramped bridge. The 400 foot long ramp deposits visitors at the center of the fog mass onto a large open-air platform where movement is unregulated. Visual and acoustical references are erased along the journey toward the fog leaving only an optical “white-out” and the “white-noise” of pulsing water nozzles. Prior to entering the cloud, each visitor responds to a questionnaire/character profile and receives a “braincoat” (smart raincoat). The coat is used as protection from the wet environment and storage of the personality data for communication with the cloud’s computer network. Using tracking and location technologies, each visitor’s position can be identified and their character profiles compared to any other visitor.In the Glass Box, a space surrounded by glass on six sides, visitors experience a “sense of physical suspension only heightened by an occasional opening in the fog.” As visitors pass one another, their coats compare profiles and change color indicating the degree of attraction or repulsion, much like an involuntary blush – red for affinity, green for antipathy. The system allows interaction among 400 visitors at any time.Visitors can climb another level to the Angel Bar at the summit. The final ascent resembles the sensation of flight as one pierces through the cloud layer to the open sky. Here, visitors relax, take in the view, and choose from a large selection of commercial waters, municipal waters from world capitals, and glacial waters. At night, the fog will function as a dynamic and thick video screen.

moon tensegrity membrane structure

This is an experimental housing complex that sought to regenerate the shops-cum-houses in an old area of Hanoi, Vietnam. This district, popularly known as “the 36th street district”, is composed primarily of houses inhabited by traditionally large Chinese families. The buildings have narrow frontages and an unusually extended depth of 70-80 m. These high-density, low-rise buildings were considered to be a comfortable domestic environment until the changes of government in Vietnam during the 20th century.
Han,” became such a high-density city (1,000 people per hectare} that many families began to live together within one unit and even to transform courtyards into actual rooms. As a result the standard of living deteriorated.