¶ Zeiss Dome
Index Entry
Zeiss Dome:
"When my dome was first shown in the Museum of Modern Art
in New York, Arthur Drexler–their curator of architecture–
and others said that my geodesic domes had been anticipated
by the Zeiss Dome in Germany.
"But the Zeiss Dome did not anticipate my tensegrity
structures at all. The Zeiss Dome was triangulated, but only
as a reinforcing grid for concrete. With all that concrete
they did not realize that the structural integrity was in
the reinforcing net itself–that it could stand by itself.
The workmen found it stiff enough to climb on, and were
photographed doing so, but none of the engineers involved
assumed that such a grid building had any serious structural
capability in its own right. Engineer’s logic is based
entirely on a compressional continuity which may be only
held together by tension."
Wash, DC; 14 Oct’76
¶ Citations
- RBF rewrite of 7 Oct’76 entry; done at 3200 Idaho,
