STRUCTURAL GLASS FACADES - USC School of Architecture

Fuller later went on to develop tensegrity dome
concepts, and in 1964 patented his “aspension
dome” system. While not pure tensegrity
structures (they are open systems), Robbin (1996)
argues that they can fairly be classified as
tensegrity structures. Moreover, as used by David
Geiger to develop a tensile roof structure system
that was used, among other applications, to build
Figure 2.12 Needle Tower, 1968 by
Kenneth Snelson.
the Seoul Olympic Gymnastics Arena in 1986, they
represent the first architectural application of
tensegrity structures. The fabric clad structure weighed in at just 2 psf (9.8 kg/m²). (Tuchman
& Ho-Chul 1986)
Matthys Levy of engineering firm Weidlinger and Associates developed a similar dome that
was used on the Georgia Dome, a sketch and images of which are shown below.
Figure 2.13 Sections of Georgia Dome (Castro & Levy 1992).
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