The SergeFerrari Group announces the acquisition of Verseidag-Indutex thus strengthing its global leader position in Tensile Architecture and Modular Structures and becoming a key player in non-combustible solutions.

See the Press Release by SergeFerrari

See the Press Release by Jagenberg (Verseidag)

Article added July 31 2020

New Canopy Holds Up Adelaide’s International Tennis Position.

See: https://www.facebook.com/LSAA.ORG/videos/2059914550935233/

 

 

 

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Just a short note to say that Boxing Day is a day of sporting highlights in Australia - as well as a lot of mahem at the sales.

The first day of the third cricket test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground - The "G" - saw a crowd of some 73,000 watch a slow scoring day on a flat pitch. India batting.

Also Boxing Day is the start of the annual Sydney to Hobart classic ocean yacht race.

From a lightweight structures viewpoint we have the extensive roof structures at the cricket. Also the fast sailing machines with their composite lightweight hulls, prestressed tensile rigging, tensioned fabric sails precisely cut to give a form to generate maximum driving force.

In recent years we have twin rudders and canting keels to maximize the functions of these appendages and in doing so further reduce the weight of the boats.

Some of the super-maxis have very large beams to enhance the planning ability and effects of the crew as ballast. 

What an iconic venue in the Kings Domain in Melbourne! And Happy 60th Birthday!! WOW

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.

In Sydney for the past 35 or so years there has been great free pre-Christmas Concerts for families.

The event is held in the Domain, and each year the quite large stage and the canopy is erected.

The founding President of the then MSAA (now the LSAA) was largely responsible for developing the canopy 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.

I recently had a short trip down to Melbourne and took a few pictures of the Arts Centre Spire which was constructed in the late 1970s.

Conceptually, the spire is a sculpture which was intended to indicate the location of something special located under the tall, tapering open lattice structure.

The "upper spire" is from bolted steel tubes with a geometry utilizing tetrahedrons so as to reduce the number of members meeting at a joint. Four joints are at each higher level and these four are rotated by 45 degrees in plan from those at the adjacent levels.

There has been a number of curved and interesting footbridges built recently here in Melbourne. See these pics:

Lightweight Structures such as cablenets and tensioned fabric structures often exhibit relatively large deformations under changing loads.

Rock climbers will rely on the extension characteristics of their ropes to cushion any fall to a deceleration that the body can withstand.

However the following link points to an extreme case of an engineered net to safely catch a dear-devil sky diver from a 7600m free fall without a parachute.

A parachute is also an example of a tensioned fabric structure which adopts a geometric form in response to applied loads (person plus air resistance).

See: https://www.createdigital.org.au/extreme-engineering-luke-aikins-skydive/ where the source of this image is acknowledged.

Project Highlight: Opening of HOTA (Home of the Arts) at the Gold Coast Cultural Precinct

LSAA Member Contributors: Structural Engineer - Arup, Fabric Supply and Installation - Fabritecture, Fabric Design - Wade Design Engineers

Designers: ARM architecture and Topotek1

Bunjil Place has opened! 

This exciting new facility is designed as a cultural hub for the Narre Warren area in Melbourne’s east, and its opening weekend was celebrated with two full days of exhibitions and performances for the community. 

Centralised from our Melbourne office, LSAA Member TTW’s team contributed
structural, civil and façade engineering services and worked closely with FJMT Studio​ and Multiplex to bring this striking multi-functional building to life. 

The building's dominant feature is the timber gridshell, the first of its kind in Australia.

Congratulations to all involved in this exciting project!

http://www.ttw.com.au/projects/bunjil-place/

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Congratulations to New Zealand for the terrific result in winning back the America Cup.

The boats truly represent a pinnacle in terms of Lightweight Structures:

• superlight and stiff fabrics used for sails
• elaboarte cutting patterns to achieve the desired three dimensional shapes in the sails
• orientation of the fabric to resist stresses and maintain the profiles to generate maximum driving forces
• like many fabric structures, the wind loadings are the dominant load case
• very flexible supporting systems from high tech materials
• minimal weights and reliance on moving ballast etc.

In 2013 the LSAA had their Conference in Auckland and we were fortunate to have a presentation about the 2013 NZ efforts.

Well done guys.