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Tensegrity
Tensegrity, tensional integrity or floating compression is a structural principle based on a system of isolated components under compression (physical), compression inside a network of continuous tension (mechanics), tension, and arranged in such a way that the compressed members (usually bars or struts) do not touch each other while the Prestressed structure, prestressed tensioned members (usually cables or tendons) delineate the system spatially. Tensegrity structures are found in both nature and human-made objects: in the human body, the bones are held in compression while the connective tissues are held in tension, and the same principles have been applied to furniture and architectural design and beyond. The term was coined by Buckminster Fuller in the 1960s as a portmanteau of "tensional integrity". Core concept Tensegrity is characterized by several foundational principles that define its unique properties: # Continuous tension: Fundamental to tensegrity, the tensi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more than 30 books and coining or popularizing such terms as " Spaceship Earth", "Dymaxion" (e.g., Dymaxion house, Dymaxion car, Dymaxion map), " ephemeralization", " synergetics", and "tensegrity". Fuller developed numerous inventions, mainly architectural designs, and popularized the widely known geodesic dome; carbon molecules known as fullerenes were later named by scientists for their structural and mathematical resemblance to geodesic spheres. He also served as the second World President of Mensa International from 1974 to 1983. Fuller was awarded 28 United States patents and many honorary doctorates. In 1960, he was awarded the Frank P. Brown Medal from The Franklin Institute. He was elected an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kurilpa Bridge, Brisbane
The Kurilpa Bridge (originally known as the Tank Street Bridge) is a 63 million pedestrian bridge, pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the Brisbane River in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The bridge connects Kurilpa Point in South Brisbane, Queensland, South Brisbane to Tank Street in the Brisbane central business district. In 2011, the bridge was judged World Transport Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival. Baulderstone built the bridge and the company's design team included Cox Rayner Architects and Arup Group Limited, Arup Engineers. A sod turning ceremony was held at Kurilpa Park, South Brisbane on 12 December 2007. The bridge was opened on 4 October 2009 by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh. Structure Kurilpa Bridge is the world's largest hybrid tensegrity bridge. Only the horizontal spars conform to tensegrity principles. The Kurilpa Bridge is a multiple-mast, cable-stay structure based on principles of tensegrity producing a synergy between balanced tens ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Kenneth Snelson
Kenneth Duane Snelson (June 29, 1927 – December 22, 2016) was an American contemporary sculptor and photographer. His sculptural works, exemplified by ''Needle Tower'', are composed of flexible and rigid components arranged according to the idea of 'tensegrity'. Snelson preferred the descriptive term floating compression. Snelson said his former professor Buckminster Fuller took credit for Snelson's discovery of the concept that Fuller named tensegrity. Fuller gave the idea its name, combining 'tension (mechanics), tension' and 'structural integrity.' Kārlis Johansons had exhibited tensegrity sculptures several years before Snelson was even born. The height and strength of Snelson's sculptures, which are often delicate in appearance, depend on the tension between rigid pipes and flexible cables. Biography Snelson was born in Pendleton, Oregon, in 1927. He studied at the University of Oregon in Eugene, at the Black Mountain College, and with Fernand Léger in Paris. His sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Spodek
Spodek is a multipurpose arena complex in Katowice, Poland, opened on 9 May 1971. Aside from the main dome, the complex includes a gym, an ice rink, a hotel and three large car parks. It was the largest indoor venue of its kind in Poland until it was surpassed by Tauron Arena in 2014. The Spodek hosts many important cultural and business events. Music concerts are especially common non-sport events. It can hold around 11,500 people, although this number is in practice limited to 10,000 or even 8,000 due to stage set-ups obscuring the view. Its Polish name refers to a flying saucer since its iconic shape resembles a UFO. Spodek is a major contribution to the cultural significance of Katowice in Poland, especially for the younger generations. It has also been used as an unofficial logo for the city on posters promoting redevelopment in Katowice. Moreover, Spodek is home to ice hockey clubs in the winter months. History The idea of building a large venue originated in 1955, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Brisbane (6868660143)
Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a population of approximately 2.8 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of South East Queensland, an urban agglomeration with a population of over 4 million. The Brisbane central business district, central business district is situated within a peninsula of the Brisbane River about from its mouth at Moreton Bay. Brisbane's metropolitan area sprawls over the hilly floodplain of the Brisbane River Valley between Moreton Bay and the Taylor Range, Taylor and D'Aguilar Range, D'Aguilar mountain ranges, encompassing several local government in Australia, local government areas, most centrally the City of Brisbane. The demonym of Brisbane is ''Brisbanite''. The Moreton Bay penal settlement was founded in 1824 at Redcliffe, Queensland, Redcliff ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Tropicana Field
Tropicana Field (nicknamed "The Trop") is a domed multipurpose stadium located in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. "The Trop" was the home of the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1998 Tampa Bay Devil Rays season, 1998 to 2024. The stadium is also used for college football, and from December 2008 to December 2017 was the home of the St. Petersburg Bowl, an annual postseason bowl game. The venue is the only nonretractable domed stadium in MLB. Tropicana Field is the List of Major League Baseball stadiums, smallest MLB stadium by seating capacity when obstructed-view rows in the uppermost sections are covered with tarps as they are for most Rays games. Tropicana Field opened in 1990 and was originally known as the Florida Suncoast Dome. In 1993, the Tampa Bay Lightning moved to the facility and its name was changed to the ThunderDome until the team moved to Amalie Arena, its new home in downtown Tampa in 1996. In October 1996, Tropicana Products, a fruit jui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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David Geiger
David H. Geiger (1935 – October 3, 1989) was an American engineer who invented the air-supported fabric roof system that at the time of his death was in use at almost half the domed stadiums in the world. Geiger was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received a bachelor's degree from Drexel University, master's degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and PhD in engineering from Columbia University. While an adjunct professor at Columbia University with a part-time engineering practice, Geiger designed the enclosure for the United States pavilion at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan. He had been tapped after the architecture firm Davis-Brody won the design contest for the building. Davis Brody's winning design was a 30-story high air filled "pumpkin" atop the pavilion and they needed an engineer with the expertise to implement it. Geiger was designing the US Pavilion to be capable of withstanding Japan's earthquakes and typhoons when Congress approved only half of the ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Skylon (Festival Of Britain)
The Skylon was a futuristic-looking, slender, vertical, cigar-shaped steel tensegrity structure located by the Thames in London, that gave the illusion of floating above the ground, built in 1951 for the Festival of Britain. A popular joke of the period was that, like the British economy of 1951, "It had no visible means of support". Construction The Skylon was the "Vertical Feature" that was an abiding symbol of the Festival of Britain. It was designed by Hidalgo Moya, Philip Powell and Felix Samuely, and fabricated by Painter Brothers of Hereford, England, on London's South Bank between Westminster Bridge and Hungerford Bridge. The Skylon consisted of a steel latticework frame, pointed at both ends and supported on cables slung between three steel beams. The partially constructed Skylon was rigged vertically, then grew taller in situ. The architects' design was made structurally feasible by the engineer Felix Samuely who, at the time, was a lecturer at the Architect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Katowice
Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. Katowice is a central part of the Metropolis GZM, with a population of 2.3 million, and a part of a larger Katowice-Ostrava metropolitan area that extends into the Czech Republic and has a population of around 5 million people, making it List of metropolitan areas in Europe#Polycentric metropolitan areas in the European Union, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the European Union."''Study on Urban Functions (Project 1.4.3)''" – European Observation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Needle Tower
''Needle Tower'' is a public artwork by United States, American sculptor Kenneth Snelson located outside of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., United States. Description This 26.5-meter-tall abstract sculpture is a tapering tower made of aluminum and stainless steel. The aluminum tubes act in compression, held in tension by the stainless steel cables threaded through in the ends of the tubes.''A Garden for Art'', Valerie J. Fletcher, LOC # 97-61991, p.85 According to Valerie Fletcher from the Institute for Human Centered Design, the “Needle Tower brings together advanced engineering methods with a very sophisticated aesthetic of abstraction". Acquisition The piece was a gift of Joseph Hirshhorn in 1974. Tensegrity Snelson's unique sculpture style is well articulated in ''Needle Tower''. The structure style displayed is known as "tensegrity," a description given by Snelson's former professor Buckminster Fuller to the melding of tension (mechani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. These were the fourth Summer Olympic Games, Summer Olympics to be hosted by the United States, making it the first country to have three different cities host the Summer Olympics. It also marked the 100th anniversary of the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, the inaugural edition of the modern Olympic Games. These were also the first Summer Olympics to be held in a different year than the Winter Olympic Games, Winter Olympics since the same time practice commenced in 1924, as part of a new International Olympic Committee, IOC practice implemented in 1994 to hold the Summer and Winter Games in alternating, even-numbered years. The 1996 Games were the first of the two consecutive Summer Olympics to be held in a predomina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |