ADAPTENT: A Generating System for Cable Net Structures

摘要

In the last decennia public events have increased considerably in both number and size. More and more outdoor venues are used for festivals, fairs, exhibitions etc. Temporary shelter has to be provided for people and equipment alike. Tensile structures are very appropriate for this task for they are lightweight, easy to handle and transport, relatively fast erected from prefabricated parts and easily disassembled. Two possibilities are on offer for the event organiser: standardised "tents" and customised fabric structures. Both types of tensile structures have distinct characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. Whereas the standardised "tents" provide readily available rental solutions in a systematic way, built of standard elements taken from the tent-provider's stock, they offer rather low creative freedom as far as design is concerned. They are based upon repetition of fixed plan forms, usually squares, rectangles and hexagons. They do lack the "free-form" character typical for customised fabric structures. According to the principles of tensile architecture creative designers can make beautiful and non-conventional, eye-catching structures. Such attractive structures can add greatly to the appearance of an event. But custom designed and manufactured structures are expensive and in view of their mostly short live span, the investment is in many cases not justifiable. A four-year research project, sponsored by IWT, looked deeper into the discrepancy between custom fabric structures and standardised "tents". A generating system for cable net structures was developed and its feasibility was evaluated.