Interesting architecture

[DARISC]

I designed and modeled this tower in Autocad. It is comprised of multiple identical rigid structures, no two of which are in direct contact with one another. Cables and turnbuckles join them into a rigid structure which, as illustrated by the horizontal tower mounted to the wall, is rigid in any orientation.

A similar structure, designed by one of the most innovative designer/engineer/architect/philosophers of the 20th century, was built to be used as an rf transmission tower.

A well known late 20th century artist used these design principles to create a series of sculptures.

Whose work is this tower based on?

Who is the artist mentioned?

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Cesar Pelli?

The wording of your question implies someone with an engineering background (like Calatrava) but I'm not aware he's done anything with RF transmission towers. . .

EDIT:

I take it back - just did a quick google search and came up with this interesting piece by Calatrava in Barcelona (yes, it's a transmission tower):

[john70t]

Buckminster Fuller? MC Esher? I have no idea.

[DARISC]

I bet kach knows .

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by john70t

Buckminster Fuller? MC Esher? I have no idea.

Bucky was my guess...

[kstar]

"Alec Eiffel"

Pioneer of aerodynamics
(little eiffel, little eiffel)
they thought he was real smart alec
(little eiffel, little eiffel)
he thought big they called it a phallic
(little eiffel, little eiffel)
they didn't know he was panoramic
little eiffel stands in the archway
(little eiffel, little eiffel)
keeping low doesn't make no sense
sometimes people can be oh so dense
they didn't want it but he built it anyway
(little eiffel, little eiffel)
little eiffel stands in the archway
(little eiffel, little eiffel)
keeping low don't make sense
keeping low doesn't make no-sense
(little eiffel, little eiffel)
little eiffel stands in the archway
oh alexander i see you beneath
the archway of aerodynamics.

?????

[Mule]

Alfred E. Newman?

[Mule]

Alfred E. Newman?

[looneybin]

in architecture school a classmate & i made a similar structure, we were studying tension structures, we called it tens-egrity (tension integrity) unfortunately, i don't have any pics of it, we did however get a AIA students award for it.
It was very stable & could support both if our weight, but has no redundancy, if the cable fails, the whole thing crashes down.

[kstar]

Originally Posted by looneybin

in architecture school a classmate & i made a similar structure, we were studying tension structures, we called it tens-egrity (tension integrity) unfortunately, i don't have any pics of it, we did however get a AIA students award for it.
It was very stable & could support both if our weight, but has no redundancy, if the cable fails, the whole thing crashes down.

Sounds like Fuller's "buddy" Kenneth Snelson.

I think Snelson coined "tensegrity" and the "X-piece"

[looneybin]

yep, thats very similar to it, but the one i made was only 10' tall & the sticks were 2' long.
we didn't come up with the name or the concept, we just expanded on it.

[kstar]

Seems like the architectural/engineering equivalent of a chain - only as strong as the weakest link!

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by kstarnes

Sounds like Fuller's "buddy" Kenneth Snelson.

I think Snelson coined "tensegrity" and the "X-piece"

We have a winnah!

I was always irritated that Snelson did nothing creative with Bucky's ideas; simply built a series of tgensegrity pieces and called it art (and I don't remember him giving much if any credit to Fuller).

San Diego City College had a piece of his on their lawn a number of years ago.

Ah yes - for you auto buffs. Fuller's Dymaxion:

[kstar]

I think Snelson was a bit pissed that Fuller didn't give him more credit for his ideas!

Okay, what do I win?

BTW, Looney tipped me to Snelson with "tensegrity", so he deserves to share the warm glow of victory.

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by kstarnes

I think Snelson was a bit pissed that Fuller didn't give him more credit for his ideas!

Seriously?

Okay, what do I win?

TBD

..

[KaptKaos]

Looks like a Hoberman Sphere. But I'll guess Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe.

Whoops! Maybe I should read the whole thing first......

[kstar]

Originally Posted by DARISC

..

Check this out:

Kenneth Snelson, born 1927 in Pendleton, Oregon, said "my art is concerned with nature in its primary aspect, the patterns of physical forces in three dimensional space." Snelson was fascinated by "the infinite perfection of connections" holding everything together. His curiosity about the structure of matter led him to study the two fundamental weave patterns: two-way fabric weave, forming squares, and three-way basket weave, forming triangles and hexagons. Favouring the three-way weave, which is infinitely more stable, he developed three-dimensional weave cells. These self-contained structural units, which he used as the components of his sculptures, consist of tubes and cables - rigid compression tubes pushing outward, held together by flexible tension cables pulling inward. These polyhedral units could be stacked together making larger "floating compression structures" which still maintained the characteristics of a single unit. The dynamic balance between the inward pull of the cables and the outward push of the tubes, which appear to float within the network, gives them enormous structural integrity, maintaining their shape in apparent defiance of gravity, whether vertical or horizontal. His Needle Tower is made from these components.

Although Snelson came up with the concept of tensegrity, it was Robert Buckminster Fuller who coined the term. The two met in 1948, when Snelson was in art school at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. They shared an interest in the geometry of structure, and when Snelson showed Fuller his early X piece, Fuller immediately saw the potential of this principle of opposing tensional and compressive forces, coining the term "tensegrity" (tension integrity).

A bio on Fuller follows the above.

Excerpt of that:

Fuller was developing the dome at the same time that Snelson was creating his tension-vectored sculptures, both different aspects of tensegrity. The geodesic dome is a tensegrity structure with an "exoskeleton" of struts on the outside, which are under both compression and tension. The compression and tension elements can be separated by "jitterbugging" the struts from the outside to the inside, resulting in Snelson's tension-vectored, "floating compression" forms, with an "endoskeleton" of compressive struts which no longer touch each other. In the same way, a rigid icosahedron can be transformed into one which is tension-vectored.

Tension-vectored forms provide discontinuous compression in a matrix of continuous tension. The tension is continuous both in space (i.e. all tensional elements connect) but is also in time, as it is permanently pre-stressed, exhibiting "pre-tension". This is the ingredient which provides great strength relative to the actual weight and substance of the structure. When the structure is under load (including gravity), the stress is shared throughout the tension network, making the whole stronger than its separate parts. Furthermore, the greater the load, the greater the tension and therefore the greater the strength.

Transforming the geodesic form into a tension-vectored form makes the structure much more dynamic. By now it should be clear that this model has more application to the human body than any structure made of columns and beams. Ida Rolf saw its potential, and worked with Fuller in the 60's and 70's. She treated the body "as if" it were a tensegrity structure, and there are a number of articles written by Rolfers at that time.

http://www.intelligentbody.org.uk/edavies.php

Obviously two smart dudes.

[DARISC]

QUOTE=kstarnes;3970500]Obviously two smart dudes.[/QUOTE]
And one ign'nt dude who had it backwards . I stand enlightened. Thanks.