3.1.2. FULLER, SNELSON AND EMMERICH
In 1948 appeared the second famous sculpture “The X piece”
(Figure A2) made by the artist Kenneth Snelson, student of
Buckminster Fuller. Once Fuller saw the potential of this idea, he
improved it and created the concept “Tensegrity”. Later, in 1962,
he pattented the invention and it was accepted for the academic
comunity.In 1968 Snelson created the first tall sculpture “Needle
tower” exhibited outside of the Hirshhorn Museum and sculpture
Garden in Washington DC. Snelson gain reputation and the idea
started to have impact in engineers and architects.
Another pioneer in the field was David Georges Emmerich french
architect who is considered another leading innovator of structur-
al morphology. In 1964 he pattented another approach of
tensegrity based on tirangular anti-prism concept. The three
inventors wanted to be recognized as an intellectual authors of
the structural concept. Historically there was rivalry between
them to get the official recognition. It is precise to define that
Tensegrity has three main inventors and it was fed by their
contributions.
Figure A3: “Needle Tower” by Kenneth Snelson. Year:1968
3.1.3. EARLY ARCHITECTURAL DEVELOPMENTS
One of the first innovative larger span structure was the J.S.
Dorton Arena in Raleigh (Figure A4), North Carolina. It was
designed by the architect William Henley and it was opened in
1952. The roof is composed by a steel cable net which works in
tension and it is held up by the concrete arches that work in
compression. It is important to noticed that the cable-nets could
be an approximation of a membrane surface, that are tensioned by
its boundary conditions. This building was the first structure in
the world to use a cable-supported roof.
Another important progress in the field of engineering and
architecture is the Arena Multi-purpose hall Spodek in Kato-
wice(Figure A5), Poland. Built between 1960 and 1962 and
designed by the polish engineer Waclaw Zalewski [Peña, 2012].
This is the first structure wich apply the tensegrity behaviour in
the roof It could be noticed that at the same time Buckmisnter
fuller was developing his pattent. Zalewski is considered a
discredited inventor in some innovations, nevertheless, fortunate-
ly some of his contributions have been built.The Spodek stadium
was the first tensegrity dome built that cover an area of 12.800
square meters. In 1964 Buckminster Fuller pattented his tensegri-
ty dome system.
Figure A4: J.S. Dorton Arena in Raeligh. Year:1952
Figure A5: Arena Multi-purpose Spodek. Year:1962
- Peña, D. 2012. Aplicacion de los principios del “tensegrity” a las construcciones textiles atirantadas. Research thesis.
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