The LSAA was founded at the University of NSW in 1981. Recent Conferences have been hosted at several Universities in Melbourne (Monash and Swinburne) and UTS in Sydney.

Swinburne University of Technology, The University of Melbourne, and RMIT University are combining forces to present the 2025 Student Design Award.

Note: Registrations close COB April 22, 2025, Submissions by May 31, 2025 - see more details HERE.

This award is open to small teams of students currently enrolled in a tertiary institution to develop and present a conceptual design that embodies the principles of lightweight structures, emphasizes sustainability, and the need to address social and climate change issues. This year's event raises awareness of the “epidemic of boringness” to quote Thomas Heatherwick. How might we create more liveable cities and create buildings that we are inspired to look after?

We are honoured to be supported by our Student Award sponsors: Tensys Engineers and MakMax

The first, inaugral Student Awards were held in 2024. There is a page on the LSAA website covering all our past Awards on a separate sub-menu. The winning entries and background for the inaugral award might be helpful - see https://lsaa.org/lsaa-design-awards/2024-design-awards/2024-lsaa-student-awards

Feedback from 2024 Students: Extremely rewarding to tackle the project, great exprience in teamwork and creativity. Advice would be to start early (not long to submission date), engage the whole group. Don't forget other obligations/subjects.

2024 Student Competition Winners Used flexible rods as boundary form defining elements for one structure they also developed a ball joint using 3D printing technology. In addition to producing a 3D Prototype the team had to submit their concepts in an A1 sized poster. Some images from the winning Dandelions team in 2024 - courtesy of Dr Daniel Phohasky

LSAA Overview

The Lightweight Structures Association of Australasia (LSAA) is a Not for Profit, autonomous, inter-disciplinary group of interested parties involved in the field of lightweight architectural structures. We started in 1981 as the Membrane Structures Association (MSAA) but expanded in 1994 to include other innovative structures such as cable-nets and high-tech glazing facades.

Operating primarily in Australia and New Zealand our basic aim is to promote the proper application of lightweight structures, their design, fabrication, construction and materials and to encourage the development of these and other aspects essential to lightweight structures.

LSAA Mission Statement

Our mission is to "To lead, promote and develop excellence and innovation in lightweight structures by inspiring research and disseminating expert knowledge to expand the industry and opportunities for our members".

LSAA Activities

We do this by holding Conferences and our industry leading LSAA Design Awards.

Our most recent event was the LSAA 2024 Conference and Design Awards September 12-13 2024 at
Swinburne University.

The theme was 'Connecting to Tomorrow' See Menu items for the Conference and Awards 
An important new initiative was the creation of the Inaugural Student Design Competition. We are hoping to run this every year as an International Competition.

Note: the most recent article is listed first. Some articles may appear on the LSAA Homepage for a while but then be moved to a new location such as Industry News.

Announcing the LSAA 2025 Student Design Competition Award

Australian Open Tennis Event in Melbourne 2025

For the Australian Open in Melbourne the main matches are held in either the Margaret Court Arena, the Rod Laver Arena, the John Cain Arena and Kia Arenas with their retractable or innovative roofs.

Cyclone Tracy Hits Darwin - Christmas Day 1974

Cyclone Tracy was considered to be the most damaging cyclone in Australia's history. Although extremely small in area the wind speeds were substantial. Significant changes to the Wind Loading Standards AS 1170.2 followed. House construction methods changed also.

Australian Summer of Cricket 2024-25

This very brief article is to say that the venues used for the 2024-25 summer of cricket in Australia contests - or at least the stadium roof structures - are the focus for much of the work that our LSAA members are focused on.

Melbourne Arts Centre Spire and Theatres Celebrate 40 Years

An overview of the design development of the Melbourne Arts Centre Spire in the mid 1970s and in particular the lower spire skirt to represent a ballerinas tutu. The upper spire geometry is depicted in a "pre-CAD" drawing from 1977 by Dr Peter Kneen

Carols by Candlelight at the Iconic Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne

Sidney Myer Music Bowl is the current venue for Carols by Candlelight - since its completion in 1959 - is a pioneering, world class example of tensile architecture using stressed cables in a double curvature form to resist environmental loads (wind) and to act as an effective sound shell for music.

Carols in the Domain Sydney - A Note About the Stage Canopy

History of the Sydney Carols in the Domain Demountable Stage Canopy Structure designed in the 1980s

New Orleans' Superdome Stadium Rennovation

The New Orleans' Superdome is getting a rennovation after 50 years of service. Much of the rennovation works is towards making a better "experience" for patrons which has been a trend in recent years in stadium designs. It played a vital role during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Tennis - The Australian Open (AO) - Another Ball Game

Aside from that other game involving a hard red or white ball (sometimes pink) that misbehaves in the air especially when new, there are crowds of people take great delight in the summer Australian Open Tennis Tournament being held in Melbourne.

Like the recent article about the Test Series Cricket in Australia, this article is not really about the art of playing first class tennis but that the venues where the games are played usually involve a significant roof structure which involves careful architectural and engineering design.

Several of the LSAA Members have been involved in these projects.

Some of the venues have been redeveloped specifically for the modern standards for tennis such as the Memorial Drive venue in Adelaide. Other projects include the Brisbane State Tennis Centre and the Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney which functions as a multipurpose venue.

For the Australian Open in Melbourne the main matches are held in either the Margaret Court Arena, the Rod Laver Arena, the John Cain Arena and Kia Arenas with their retractable or innovative roofs. These arenas are all part of the Melbourne and Olympic Parks which have evolved following the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games

Severe Cyclone Tracy was considered to be the most damaging cyclone in Australia's history.

Although extremely small in area the wind speeds were substantial - the anemometer at Darwin Airport recorded a gust of 217 km/h before being destroyed - with sustained speeds of 189 km/h as it hit Darwin. An accepted peak speed is reported as 236 km/h.

66 people were killed either on land or lost at sea and the city was flattened. Most people were unprepared as an earlier cyclone passed by without causing havoc.

Cyclones have different "Categories" from 1 ("Damaging winds. Negligible house damage. Damage to some crops, trees and caravans. Craft may drag moorings.") to 5 ("Extremely dangerous with widespread destruction of buildings and vegetation. Maximum mean wind speed greater than 200 km/h. Typical strongest gust greater than 279 km/h.") Tracy was a Category 4 when it was over Darwin.

Some Links to Articles and Film Clips covering the Human Story

See article in Wikipedia (consider contributing a few dollars as I do)

Refer to an ABC Article with short videos of the damage, interviews with survivours and the support by other Australians.

We have already witnessed three completely different Test Cricket matches between the visiting Indian team and our perhaps aging Aussie team.

If you ended up here wanting to delve deeper into this fascinating game then I am sorry.

This very brief article is to say that the venues used for these contests - or at least the stadium roof structures - are the focus for much of the work that our members are involved in.

The one sided 2024 Mens Test in Perth was held in the relatively new Optus Stadium (see article in our Projects --> Stadiums page)

Adelaide also has a revamped stadium as described in this article The 2024 mens test match was one-sided the other way.

Onto a rain soaked drawn match at the Gabba cricket ground. This stadium roof was partially converted to a tension membrane roof in the mid 1990s with this style of roof extended in later years. Both teams showed some areas of concern with injuries making the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne an event to be watched keenly.

The Melbourne test was a cracker and the record crowds saw some great cricket, Australia just coming out on top. This meant that the last test in Sydney needed to be won or drawn by Australia to regain the elusive Border-Gavaskar Trophy. That Jasprit Bumrah with magnificent bowling figures rightly deserved the Player of the Series even though our own Steve Smith might be the new "figure" for detergents - removing 99.99% of whatever. 

Well done to all the players - it was certainly right up there in terms of Test Series. Congrats also to the McGrath Foundation for raising a record amount for more Cancer Carers.

Some other stadiums around the country are included below - the Metricon stadium and the AAMI stadium in Melbourne are samples.

We have a web page devoted to stadiums that our members have been involved with from design input, fabrication of the tensile membranes and their installation. Some of these projects on the Projects page are overseas work.

If you are involved in this type of architecture, design, engineering or construction your should consider joining the LSAA

Design Work on the Spire from 1973

Dr Peter Kneen

My initial involvement with Sir Roy Grounds and the design of the Spire followed on from a meeting with senior engineers from John Connell and Associates (JCA) at a Conference about Tall Buildings at the University of Sydney in 1973. As a result I was engaged to carry out a complete design check on the four large spaceframe roof structures proposed for the Collins Place Project and another four roofs for the Canberra Hospital Services Complex.

The Arts Centre Spire and Meeting Sir Roy Grounds

At the end of being briefed on these two projects, we were in Andrew Goad’s office (JCA) and on the wall behind there was a drawing of a tall tapering lattice tower.

It turned out that this was the state of play for the design of the Spire for the Victorian Arts Centre. I had last heard of the spire whilst in High School when pupils were encouraged to save their copper coins for the copper clad spire. John Peyton asked, “do you want to have a go at that one?” I answered with a yes and so John contacted the architect Sir Roy Grounds, and he agreed to meet me the next day where he defined the basic criteria to be satisfied. By this time the concept for a copper clad spire "place marker" covering a relatively small theatre built below street level had been abandoned and a tall open tapering lattice spire was the direction to be followed. 

A model of the Copper clad Spire above the Theatres essentially planned to be below street level.