I'd blame Buckminster Fuller for the cult-like descriptions of it as he did seem to be as much a marketer as a designer.
My take-away from tensegrity is that it's a design whereby the elements are either purely tensile (strings) or purely compressive (struts) which makes a structure very light and strong. However, it's often a lot simpler (cheaper) to make a design that uses modern materials that function well under compression and tension.
Re:Tensegrity Wiki
by 8note on Monday May 08, 2023 @12:45PM
(#35863823)
The pure compression isn't a big deal on it, but the big thing vs a truss is that the compression elements don't touch each other, only tensions elements
I'd blame Buckminster Fuller for the cult-like descriptions of it as he did seem to be as much a marketer as a designer.
My take-away from tensegrity is that it's a design whereby the elements are either purely tensile (strings) or purely compressive (struts) which makes a structure very light and strong. However, it's often a lot simpler (cheaper) to make a design that uses modern materials that function well under compression and tension.