fishing line and dowel incarnation of lowest-frequency Octahedral Fly's Eye Tensegrity Truss

I assembled the first two versions of this figure on June 30 and July 14, 1987. (These two versions suffered from loose tendons and interference problems respectively.) It was the simplest frequency-two version of what I was calling an "Octahedral Fly's Eye Tensegrity Truss". This is an extension of the work I did for the Laminar 2v Tensegrity Octahedron of the previous photo except now I wanted to alternate triangular convergences on the outer layer with square convergences on the inner layer.

I was pleased with how it turned out, but never built a higher-frequency version which would exhibit the fly's-eye holes I was envisioning similar to the holes in Buckminster Fuller's Fly's Eye geodesic. Perhaps I didn't find it stiff enough. On August 4, 1992, I put in additional tendons across the inner rhombuses. These stiffened the structure and mitigated the interference problems. These tendons are white and don't show up too well in the above photo. The interior of this structure is a distorted small rhombicuboctahedron.

On July 14, 1987, I also assembled a 2v icosahedral version. It looked striking, but wasn't as rigid as I would have liked. Neither photos or the structure survive.


Laminar 2v Tensegrity Octahedron (Variation) Index Double-Layer Tensegrity Dome