Think about it …
-
- Engineering materials are too strong. Take some empty space with your steel – dilute it!
- We’ve done it for centuries. The Forth Bridge, below, is a composite of steel and space.
- This is why we use sections: angles, I-sections all entrain space; lattices more so.
Why don’t we …
- Embrace the concept?
- Discover that repeating shapes like tubes and lattices transform their parent materials into ‘macromaterials’ with properties like stiffness, strength and density … and cost?
- Discover that the hierarchy of shape is associated with a hierarchy of material?
- Discover that instead of designing complex patterns of shape we can choose a macromaterial having a suitable performance?
What should we gain?
- Performance is tied to material not to shape, so establishing macromaterial properties is the best way of recording structural performance.
- A structural design theory.
- A better appreciation of the dichotomy between tension and compression.
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