Tensegrity Structures and Geodesic Domes - A Vision of the Future?

You might not be familiar with tensegrity structures or how cool they are. I learned about them in my research into R. Buckminster Fuller's work.

Fuller has a certain way with words that can be confusing, as he described tensegrity this way:

The word tensegrity is an invention: it is a contraction of tensional integrity. Tensegrity describes a structural-relationship principle in which structural shape is guaranteed by the finitely closed, comprehensively continuous, tensional behaviors of the system and not by the discontinuous and exclusively local compressional member behaviors. Tensegrity provides the ability to yield increasingly without ultimately breaking or coming asunder.

Components of bars or struts are compressed into position yet don't touch each other, made possible through continuous tension cables or tendons that keep them separate. It's also called floating compression.

Here are some neat things you can make, some are just artwork or ornamental, and some have a more practical purpose like a tensegrity bridge:

Tensegrity Spiral

Largest Tensegrity bridge in the world Kurilpa Bridge- Brisbane

Tensegrity is getting an upgrade with new 3D printed tensegrity shapes. Researchers can print the shapes and heat them later to make the structure unfold and expand. Tensegrity structures could start off smaller and then shape-shift into the full form.

Researchers at Georgia Tech 3-D printed an object made with tensegrity, a structural system of floating rods in compression and cables in continuous tension. Credit: Rob Felt

But so what, why even use these things? Well, tensegrity structures are lightweight and very strong.

Think of space exploration and the load to bringing structures up, or material to build structures. Well with tensegrity you can fabricate something in a much smaller space than a normal structure, deploy it into space, then unfold it for the full-size structure to form. Something easier to build than an actual building is an antenna that could be unfolded in space.

The 3D design works by printing flat struts that are hollow, heating them up to be folded into W shapes, and then attached to cables. Once cooled they stay in that shape. Heating them up again allows them to unfold into the desired tensegrity structure.

Deployment of an active tensegrity is based on the shape recovery property of shape memory polymers (SMP).

The struts can expand sequentially and produce the proper shape due to shape memory polymers (SMP) that adjust at which temperature the expansion occurs. Without that control, the structure can easily get tangled.

So what do you think about tensegrity shapes? It hasn't boomed yet in the mainstream much, but many of R. Buckminster Fuller's ideas were ahead of his time. I recommend you check out Fuller and his ideas, as he is a proponent of shifting our mindsets away from weaponry towards livingry. Abundance can be created instead of scarcity if we work together instead of trying to be dominators and conquerors. Imperialism was not "good" for humanity, but only for the few that benefitted. Common understanding in moral law needs to be reached for us to live freely.

Let's use technology to create things that benefit life, not destroy. It's time to evolve and stop being death-dealers on planet Earth. Fuller accurately describes our planet as Spaceship Earth. We are all on one ship going through space, and we don't have anywhere to go if we ruin our planet.

The dark ages still reign over all humanity, and the depth and persistence of this domination are only now becoming clear. This Dark Ages prison has no steel bars, chains, or locks. Instead, it is locked by misorientation and built of misinformation.
- R. Buckminster Fuller, Cosmography

Evolve consciousness and seek to learn more about our condition and how to make it better through our behavior.

R. Buckminster Fuller also popularized the geodesic dome structures that are more plentiful around the world. I'm sure you've seen one on TV or a movie at the very least. In Montreal there was a biosphere build for Expo '67 that caught fire in '76 and was only reused and rebuilt in the 90s, first into a water museum and later an environment museum:

Biosphère - Environnement Canada, by abdallahh, from flickr.com

Geodesic domes are unique for their incredible load bearing capacity, as they are spherically shaped and utilize the same dynamics of a sphere in being able to withstand heavy pressure by redistributing the load throughout the whole structure.

Some people have even built homes using the geodesic dome architecture:

Source

Source

Check out this pinterest page for more geodesic domes.

It's also useful for a greenhouse design. On YouTube I've seen BigelowBrookFarm run a greenhouse all year through the winter with a rocket stove built into their custom made dome.

Have tensegrity structures or geodesic domes finally reached the time when their particular engineering strengths can be appreciated? Will we be seeing more of this in the next generation of inventors, engineers, architects and designers?