Soft Shells: Design and Technology of Tensile Architecture

The innovative technique of building with membranes has experienced a revolutionary development over the past thirty years. The spectrum of applying these light-weight, extraordinarily versatile structures has widened considerably and today includes shelters for sports facilities, airports, recreational facilities as well as buildings for scientific and medical purposes all the way to residential buildings. The extremely thin membranes are capable of spanning great distances without supports and are highly flexible in shape. They are easily assembled and therefore not only very attractive solutions for mobile uses but also very cost effective. Last, but not least, the transparent or translucent membranes allow for natural lighting and offer climatic advantages.

This book shows 30 selected membrane structures from the past decade and discusses characteristic details in the construction of each building.Construction drawings, carefully described and reproduced to scale, and photographs illustrate the building methods and the characteristics of the materials used.