Tensegrity* Icosahedron*

The opposing forces that act upon the world are as obvious as they are invisible; tension and compression make up the twin logics of pulling and pushing, distance and proximity, stretching and squashing. When these forces are balanced in equal opposition to one another, they create the conditions for harmonious architecture. One term for this is tensional integrity, or “tensegrity.”

Floating Compression

Steel, charred wood, stainless cable — 2022

Glass House Arts (Escondido, CA)

Tension and compression are the invisible architecture of everything: bones, bridges, solar systems. Tensegrity (short for "tensional integrity") is the balance of those forces—pulling and pushing, suspension and stability—into a floating form.

While this shape is a classic, there is only one like this. Scaled up with 10-foot charred 4x4 beams and custom-fabricated steel caps, held in perfect equilibrium by precisely measured and stainless steel cables made by hand. No beam touches another except through the dance of force.

We were inspired by MJ’s father, who connects with the world through geometry - building puzzles, tensegrity models, and geometric objects of all kinds. His obsession with these forms has been a constant in MJ’s life. Recreating one of his favorites, the tensegrity icosahedron, at a large scale gave us a new way to understand the shape - and a new way to connect with him. Making it big turned it into something we could talk about, puzzle over together, and share more fully.

This sculpture debuted at Burning Man and now stands as an invitation to see space, structure, and balance differently.

What it might be like to Build

We are attempting to build a project that is unlike anything we have built before.
It is going well so far! And it has been lots of fun so far!

Tensegrity is having a bit of a moment. So there is no shortage of sources and references to it around on the internet. You can find endless videos of people making "floating tables" and there are loads of toys available (even one by Lego.).

The shape we choose is a common tensegrity structure. Here is an example of someone on youtube building a tiny model of what we are building out of Popsicle sticks and rubber bands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrEy4zgItrA

EXCEPT >>>> We will be building with 10ft 4x4s. The test build used ratchet straps, and the final project will uses steel cables.

If you dig around the internet a bit deeper, you can find a few examples of folks building large tensegrity structures. Most notably Kenneth Snelson (see note below about the origin of this type of construction.) Still, little is documented about process and the bit that is involves a lot of money and heavy machinery. Our mid scale was not something we found.

End of process note: We completed this project, concept to finish, in 3 weekends. It was super fun! So fun that we are now setting out to make a tensegrity piece that is roughly 3 times the size. But this this time we know what we are doing.... kinda ;)