Wonderful Tensegrity Structures
oobject.com — Tensegrity structures are visually stunning and their combination with computer enhanced structures is creating renewed interest for architectural applications. Buckminster Fuller coined the term tensegrity when he saw sculptures by Kenneth Snelson and realized that rigid component geodesics were a special case of perfectly balanced compression...
Dalogi- 431 diggs
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- GIMAD2008, on 02/07/2008, -9/+7Very cool man, thanks for sharing!
- sanman, on 02/07/2008, -0/+1Yes, amazing stuff. I wonder though if tensegrity couldn't also be used to make structures for moving objects -- ie. vehicles. Could you have a tensegrity-based ship, for example? Maybe perhaps make some kind of gigantic supertanker, larger than you'd otherwise be able to achieve? Could you also make cars, trucks, or airplanes? Or maybe in particular large airships, especially these cool new hybrid airships that we're now hearing about? I'm wondering if the tensegrity combined with computer control would allow some variable geometry behavior that might be desirable.
Just some thoughts.
- sanman, on 02/07/2008, -0/+1Yes, amazing stuff. I wonder though if tensegrity couldn't also be used to make structures for moving objects -- ie. vehicles. Could you have a tensegrity-based ship, for example? Maybe perhaps make some kind of gigantic supertanker, larger than you'd otherwise be able to achieve? Could you also make cars, trucks, or airplanes? Or maybe in particular large airships, especially these cool new hybrid airships that we're now hearing about? I'm wondering if the tensegrity combined with computer control would allow some variable geometry behavior that might be desirable.
- mcollins08, on 02/07/2008, -2/+2Interesting indeed
- sciencebase, on 02/07/2008, -1/+13Of course, as a chemist I couldn't let it pass without comment that the soccerball-shaped molecules of carbon known as fullerenes with their truncated icosahedral structure (reminiscent of the straw tensegrity structure item #9) are named for Richard Buckminster Fuller.
- Calculon, on 02/07/2008, -0/+11Buckyballs!
- thesonofdarwin, on 02/07/2008, -0/+3My eyes were glazed over till you said that. Every scientist has heard of buckyballs!
- Calculon, on 02/07/2008, -0/+11Buckyballs!
- shapattack, on 02/07/2008, -2/+3Never heard of this before. Thanks for sending my way -
- levitron, on 02/07/2008, -0/+3There's an awesome kids' toy based on a simple tensegrity structure that I found shortly after I had my first kid. (http://www.drtoy.com/1997_c/drclseval08.htm - second from the top)
- hollywoodkids, on 02/07/2008, -0/+6Whatever happened to erector sets?
- Emused, on 02/07/2008, -1/+3Gotta love "Bucky", the real "Crazy Canuck".
- obliviousfool, on 02/07/2008, -1/+3http://hirshhorn.si.edu/collection/gardens/snelson ...
There is a cool one outside the Hirshhorn in DC. It's called the Needle Tower, and it's by Kenneth Snelson.- rootneg2, on 02/07/2008, -0/+2Snelson does some really amazing tensegrity structures.
There's actually some controversy as to who invented/discovered tensegrity: Snelson or Fuller?- obliviousfool, on 02/07/2008, -0/+2I did not know that. I always kinda assumed it was Fuller.
- rootneg2, on 02/07/2008, -0/+2Snelson does some really amazing tensegrity structures.
- bfrank72, on 02/07/2008, -1/+1That bridge is pretty wicked.
- Sean42, on 02/07/2008, -1/+3Definition of "tensegrity" - the act of placing a ridiculously large red number next to a foto.
An example would be.....
That was a nice foto, but somebody tensegritied it all to hell.- jonathanryan, on 02/07/2008, -0/+1That is how the site works. People vote on their favorite images in the category, and they end up ranked on that page. You can click on an individual image to get the original, and then page through the rest from there. The detail pages usually have more information on the image and links for references or sources.
- johnn11238, on 02/07/2008, -1/+1I was expecting "structures" as opposed to "models".
- drgmdp, on 02/07/2008, -0/+1there's a chair made with a steel structure of that kind
http://www.ambientando.com/hermes/clas/bkf/dolores ...
http://www.ambientando.com/hermes/clas/bkf/bkf.jpg - listrophy, on 02/07/2008, -0/+29 foot tensegrity sphere at UW-Madison: http://www.engr.wisc.edu/news/exhibits/Tensegrity/
It just kinda hangs there... confusing all the engineers as to its purpose. You see, we engineers don't typically "get" art.- Urusai, on 02/07/2008, -0/+2Art is when people make something that doesn't have any purpose. There you go!
- hoco, on 02/07/2008, -0/+0Here's Buckminster Fuller's nose done as a "geodesic" structure (well, its made of triangles...)
http://www.timefold.com/snapsite/hoco/public/image ...
http://www.timefold.com/nose
Yes, I designed and built this project from scratch... While at Burning Man I met Bucky Fuller's great granddaughter, who sat with me in the structure and said "I can't believe I'm sitting in my great grandfather's nose..." Priceless...- hoco, on 02/07/2008, -0/+0http://www.timefold.com/snapsite/hoco/public/image ...
I don't know why digg truncated the URL...
- hoco, on 02/07/2008, -0/+0http://www.timefold.com/snapsite/hoco/public/image ...
- V01dV01cg, on 02/07/2008, -0/+0Kenneth Snelson is a great sculptor
- JackStowe, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1Sometimes a digger is needed to share good stuff like this! Great digg!
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