Part 4 of 5: In this five-part series, we provide an introduction to tensioned fabric architecture, including the history, current applications, engineering concepts, modern materials, and the innovative benefits of tensile structures.  Click here to read additional posts.

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Tensile fabric structures have become increasingly common in today&#;s architecture due to their design flexibility, beauty, and functional benefits.  While these modern forms of fabric architecture have seen an explosion in recent decades as a result of technologically advanced materials, tensile structures have their roots in some of the earliest forms of man-made shelters.

The Early History of Tensile Structures

In their many forms, tents have been used for millennia by nomadic cultures.  From the traditional yurts of Central Asia to tipis used by Native American tribes, these early dwellings used animal skins or woven membranes that were stretched over a structural frame &#; the most basic form of tensile structures.

Among the many architectural advances made by the Roman Empire, these ancient innovators also made some of the initial contributions to the future use of tensile structures.  Roman shades, as we&#;ve come to know them, were used originally to block sunlight and dust inside homes, but they were adapted for large-scale use to provide shade at the Colosseum &#; using horizontal poles to support the outstretched fabric.

However, from the time of the Roman Empire to the 20th Century, low demand and lack of resources (cables, canvasses, and connectors) led to few additional advances.

The Industrial Revolution, Fordism, and Tensile Structures

The manufacturing process developed during the Industrial Revolution and the onset of the assembly line gave way to a surge in new technologies for building materials &#; most importantly, the mass production of steel.

In the late s and early s, Vladimir Shukhov, a Russian engineer, scientist, and architect, would take another essential step towards today&#;s tensile structure technology by developing practical calculations of stresses and deformations for beams, shells, and membranes.  He became a leading specialist of metallic structures, including hyperboloid structures, thin-shell structures, and tensile structures, leaving countless examples of his work throughout Russia.

The major advances to the field are often attributed to the German architect and engineer, Frei Otto, who began scientific studies in the s on using tensioned steel cables and membranes to create roofing systems.  Otto founded the Center for the Development of Light Construction, followed by the Institute of Light Structures at the University of Stuttgart, and he wrote the first comprehensive book on tensile structures.  Among his notable projects are the German Pavilion for the Expo in Montreal and the Munich Olympic Stadium in .

Building on the research of Frei Otto, Horst Berger also made significant contributions to the field, receiving international recognition for the incorporation of lightweight fabric structures into permanent architectural designs throughout the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East.

Modern Tensile Fabric Structures

Today, advances in technologies, design techniques, and applications continue to drive innovation the tensile architecture industry.  Many attribute this substantial growth to evolving consumer demand, challenges associated with compliance, and the need for more energy efficient solutions.  To learn more about modern advances, read our post: The Many Driving Forces Behind Innovation in Tensile Architecture.

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Tensile structures

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What is a tensile structure ?

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A tensile structure is a structure that is stabilised by tension rather than compression. The tension can be in one linear direction via cables or rods, such as with a suspension bridge or in a number of linear directions via the same such is found in tensegrity structural systems. Today possible the most common known form of tensile structures are fabric such as canopies where a piece of fabric is pulled in one or many opposite directions.

Conventional structures tend to be stabilised by the action of gravity on their mass holding them in compression whilst tensile structures are stabilised by tension rather than compression as shown below.

In practice, structures tend to carry both tension and compression, and it is the degree to which a structure is intentionally tensioned to stabilise it that determines whether it is considered a tensile structure.

Tensioning, is usually achieved with wire or cable, opposed by compression elements such as masts, and held in place by foundations, ring beams, ground anchors and so on. Tensioning can also be achieved through inflation and some gridshell structures, might be considered to act in tension (but not all), even timber structures using more flexble green oak have been erected and fixed in tension.

Structures with tension elements generally include:

Three-dimensional tensile structures typically form doubly-curved shapes that are either anticlastic or synclastic.

Doubly-curved surfaces can be tensioned without distorting their form, as the opposing curvatures balance each other at every point on the surface. Tensioning the fabric reduces its elasticity so that it will distort less when subsequently loaded, such as under wind load or snow load. In addition, the geometry of the curvature itself means that any extension of the fabric under load results in a relatively smaller deflection than would be apparent in a flatter, or less curved fabric.

So the greater the curvature and the greater the pre-tensioning of the fabric, the less it will distort under load.

For more on the structural behaviour, see The structural behaviour of architectural fabric structures.

Typically, tensile structures use less material than conventional compression structures and, as a result, are lighter and can span larger distances.

edit]tensile structures Architectural examples of

Frei Otto is possibly most associated with tensile structures, in particular the German Pavilion built for the Montreal Expo in Canada of (the same exhibition included the Buckminster Fuller Biosphere geodesic dome), in the architect built the huge plexi glass clad cable net structure of the Munich Olympic Stadium. This was a significantly scaled and permenant construction containing 271 miles of steel cabling, attached to fifty-eight cast steel pylons, which supported a curving roof canopy that covered almost 75,000 square meters. Other projects that may be considered as tensile gridhshells come from his collaboration with Shigeru Ban on the Japanese Pavilion at Expo building in .

Millennium Dome (known as 'the Dome') is a fabric clad, cable net structure in Greenwich, London that was opened in as the centrepiece of the UK&#;s millennium celebrations, which ran from 31 December to 31 December . It was designed by the Architect&#;s Richard Rogers (now Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners) with engineers Buro Happold as simple proposed the idea of covering the site with a large fabric dome, to create the shelter for a year long celebration that would open and close in the winter. The Dome is neither a true dome, nor a conventional fabric structure, but a cable net structure, clad with flat PTFE coated glass fibre fabric panels with two layers to provide insulative qualities.

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