Frei Otto's tensioned membrane roof
Cubierta de membrana tensada de Frei Otto
- Date
- 1955 · confidence high
- Place
- Kassel, Hesse, Germany
- Credited to
- Frei Otto
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Otto developed light roofs of fabric and cable nets tensioned between masts, whose form is found with soap-film models. They work in tension, covering large spans with very little material.
Shukhov built tensioned roofs at the Nizhny Novgorod Exposition (1896), and Lanchester patented an air-supported fabric (1917); Otto systematised form-finding and calculation.
What it led to
- the German pavilion at Expo Montréal (1967)
- the roofs of Munich's Olympic Stadium (1972)
- PTFE membrane lightweight structures