Tension buildings (was transportation)

On 9/9/14 9:00 AM, Ian Woollard ian.woollard@... [spacesettlers]

> In fact tensile structures are potentially quite useful in habitats;
> cable cars are likely to be very practical, you don't usually need any
> towers to hold the cables up.
>
> I would expect this to have impact on architecture. On Earth, you have
> to build UP from the ground, but in a habitat you can hang down, if
> you're going to any great height, it uses a lot less materials to do
> that than build up. And people usually quite like being up high.

Wow, that's one of those "how come I never thought of that?" ideas!
You're absolutely right, tension structures are generally easier,
stronger, and more graceful than compression structures. If we want
tall buildings, and happen to have a strong "sky" only a few hundred
meters above the ground, then absolutely architects are going to take
advantage of that.

Of course at this point we start to depart from the classic space colony
message, i.e. "it's just like Earth, only inverted!" Aesthetically, I'm
a big fan of having the bottom side of the deck smooth and light blue,
and lit with cleverly concealed projectors that give an abstract
impression of sunrise, sunset, etc. In short, a fake sky. If this sky
is even a few tens of meters above the ground, I think the "outdoors"
feel will be quite compelling (and if it's a couple hundred, so much the
better).

Having buildings that span the whole space between ground and sky breaks
this illusion, and tension buildings suspended from the sky would break
it even more. However, I suspect that those buildings would be so
beautiful that residents wouldn't care. It's NOT Earth; we're not
really fooling anyone, so we need to pick and choose where to imitate
Earth, and where to embrace the unique opportunities of space.

Tension buildings may be one of those places to embrace.

Ian, I hope you don't mind, but I've added this to the High Frontier
plans (https://www.assembla.com/spaces/high-frontier/wiki/Ideas), along
with a way for players to influence the style of buildings that appear.
This way, those who want to make a colony as Earth-like as possible
can do that, but those who want futuristic stuff like this, can have that.

Are there any architects on this list, by any chance?

Best,
- Joe