Tensegrity workshop: designing (the) building process

Abstract

This article presents the full-scale tensegrity structures that were built in a student workshop at the Department of Architecture at the University of Thessaly in spring 2007; projects included typical tensegrity forms to industrial design or small-scale architecture structures. Objectives and constraints are described, the trial-and-error approach is illustrated. Design explorations, construction investigations and experimentation with the implementation process are presented. The methodological approach is discussed to emphasize the constructive contribution of tensegrity systems in design education, their inherent characteristics and complexities of related processes touching fundamental issues in contemporary design discourse.