¶ Tooling of Domes (3)
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RBF Definitions
Tooling of Domes
"longer demonstrate sensorial architectural adherence to Sullivan’s axiom: ‘form follows function.’ Here both the form and the functions are invisible. You can’t see the difference between alloys of steel or aluminum that may be twice the strength of other alloys of the same metals. If the function is to be strong, that function is invisible–which is to say it has no aesthetic form.
“The forms we see in geodesic structures are synergetic, which is to say that they are visible in mathematical principle only, and only as the interaction of a complex of functions. No one industrial function is visible. Any one member, in a geodesic structure, may be at one time operative essentially in tension and at another time essentially in compression. These are exact opposites and none of these alternating operative behaviors would be visible to an observer of a geodesic dome as the latter remained poised, apparently serene, in a hurricane. Geodesic domes are then designed as synergetic complexes of events which maintain a superficial ultra-high-frequency integrity of constellar patterning.”
¶ Citations
- RBF Ltr. to Mr. Brattinga, 24 Jan’58
