From: J. Michael Rowland (rowley_at_quepaso.net)
Date: 03/22/00
Message-Id: <200003222048.OAA11982@mail.telalink.net> Subject: Double-wall skin (was: ball connection) Date: Wed, 22 Mar 00 14:30:07 -0600 From: "J. Michael Rowland" <rowley_at_quepaso.net>
Charles J Knight wrote:
> Do you mean something like the twin-layer geodesics on
> http://w3.one.net/~monkey
> that David was working with? He's been making geodesics
> that have a warped octet truss as the skin, rather than
> a single layer, in a hope to increase the local strength
> and resistance to buckling.
David's making his skin out of a truss arrangement. It's a lot more
complicated than what I had in mind (but they are beautiful things,
aren't they?).
I was proposing something more along the lines of the way the struts work
in a tensegrity sphere -- actually crossing under a vertex to connect two
non-adjacent vertices. Sort of a skin-and-a-half, rather than a double
skin.
It's kind of wasteful of space, so you'd probably only want to do it in a
BIG dome... but since we're talking about high-frequency domes, maybe
that goes without saying. I could also see it working in smaller domes,
if you leave off the "inside" skin and use the interconnect struts as
decorative elements, the way some log homes are built with exposed
trusses. These could be tension members, though, not compression members
as in a tensegrity, so you could get away with steel cables instead of
struts... something that could even do double-duty as, say, a track
lighting grid inside your ceiling... or supports for hanging plantings...
even hydroponic containers for trailing plants. (I've always wanted to
live in a house with ferns and vines trailing down the walls....)
jmr