Types of Tensile Structures

Tensile structures are some of the most famous buildings in the world today; however there are plenty of different ways that this type of architecture can be used. The purpose of this article is to highlight a few of them and explain exactly what they are.

Suspension Bridges

There are plenty of suspension bridges around the world, and some of them are of incredible beauty. While bridges have often been particularly helpful to people when they want to cross from one side of a river or gap to another, building them can sometimes be expensive and time-consuming. Suspension Bridges, because they use the weight of the bridge itself to remain upright can be less expensive or difficult to build, assuming that they are planned properly and everything is taken into account properly by the architect. However, for the bigger bridges of the planning is often meticulous, meaning that a tragic event involving them is extremely unlikely.

Domes

Another type of tensile structure is the dome, which can be used for all sorts of reasons, from entertainment to business to sport. Perhaps one of the most common examples of them in most cities is to house indoor football pitches. In most countries in Europe it can often get very cold in the winter and this makes training for professional football teams dangerous or impossible to do outside. Consequently, they will try to find an indoor facility and the facility they choose is often constructed in this manner as it is cheaper to build and keeps the heat in as well, meaning that the savage winter doesn't have such an impact on the floor.

Theatres

There are many theatres throughout the world that are tensile structures, such as The Sydney Myer Music Bowl which is a music venue in Australia. Because of the shape of their roofs the tensile structure as a theatre can offer excellent acoustic benefits to a performance, as voices, whether they be spoken or sung, can carry much more effectively towards the back of the theatre. Compare this to The Globe in Shakespeare's day, which had an open roof meaning a lot of what was said by the actors simply went up and disappeared out of range of hearing of the audience.

These are just a few of the different types of tensile structures that we can come across every day in city life. What other types do you tend to see?

----------------------------------------------------
Fabric Architecture Limited has been specialising in the design, engineering, manufacture and installation of tensile fabric structures since 1982. For more on Tensile Fabric visit http://www.fabricarchitecture.com

EasyPublish this article: http://submityourarticle.com/articles/easypublish.php?art_id=256385