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.
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
Note: Dec 23 2024 - this article is in Draft form and is Incomplete:
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.
Carols in the Domain has become a free pre-Christmas annual Concert which features many popular national and international performers and guests. The concept was started in 1983 by Robyn Anne Hobbs OAM. See more details in Wikipedia
A Principal Sponsor has held naming rights for the event - currently (2024) being known as Woolworths Carols in the Domain.
The event is held in the Domain Gardens adjacent to the Sydney CBD, and each year the quite large stage and for many years the lightweight tensile structure covering canopy is erected.
The founding President of the then MSAA (now the LSAA) was largely responsible for developing the original PVC fabric canopy design concept.
Vinzenz Sedlak started with a lycra model at a scale of 1:100 and envisaged four masts located near each corner of the stage. Diagonal cross cables spanned between the opposite mast heads and a long front edge cable gave an uninterrupted view of the stage area.
Vision Australia's Carols by Candelight presented by AAMI is held on Christmas Eve at the iconic Sidney Myer Music Bowl venue in the Kings Domain in Melbourne!
Carols by Candlelight was the concept of Norman Banks MBE with the first event being held in 1938.
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.
This is a unique tensile cablenet structure was designed by Barry Patten of the Architectural firm Yuncken Freeman Brothers, Griffiths and Simpson. Engineering was done by Irwin Johnstone.
The venue is named after Sidney Myer, a Russian immigrant who arrived in Melbourne in 1899 and establish Myers. He also started an annual Music for the People with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 1929. He was an important philanthropist and wanted a more permanent home for these annual performances. The setting in the Botanical Gardens would be used for the "Bowl" which was opened in 1959 some 25 years after his death.
For the LSAA, the structure can be regarded as a huge leap forward in freeform tensile architecture. It remains perhaps the largest auditorium for concerts. It was at least a decade ahead of the cablenet structures of the better known Frei Otto who developed freeform cable structures for the 1967 Expo in Montreal and later the best known roof for the main stadium for the 1972 Munich Olympics.
The shape of the surface is defined by the orthogonal grid of opposing pretensioned cables that form a double curvature, or "saddle shape".
