Lotus Aeroad—Pushing the Scale of Tensegrity Structures

The Lotus Aeroad sculpture was a focal point for the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed. Research shows it is the longest tensegrity cantilever built to date. The concept for the structure was for a scheme which echoed the philosophy of Lotus Cars, that of lightweight, pared-down design. Although the structure is simple in that it is composed of pure axially loaded struts and ties, the structural design was highly complex. Format worked exclusively within parametric environments to progress the scheme from initial form finding to the automatic production of final fabrication information. This allowed for flexibility in the design until the point when the material was ordered. We worked in conjunction with the Artists to form-find a stable tensegrity which matched the artistic intent. The global system was analysed using K2E—an parametric plug-in for Rhino-Grasshopper, developed in-house. This analysis was performed iteratively to optimise the sections used for the struts and ties to reduce the structural weight to an absolute minimum. Any unnecessary mass would require further strengthening and stiffening, adding even more material. The resulting structure was as lean as possible. The parametric workflow included a connection design script which designed the joints whilst the overall structural form was still being finalised, helping the design keep pace with the strict project deadline. Finally, this project was a test of using augmented reality at building scale. Using augmented reality software it was possible to compare the calculated positions of the elements in the 3D model to their positions on site.