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Robert Le Ricolais: the art of structure is where to put holes

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VISIONS AND PARADOX
An Exhibition of the work of
LE RICOLAIS
ROBERT
Lower Gallery, Meyerson Hall
University of Pennsylvania
January 22,1996 - February 12,1996
Robert Le R i c o l a i s 1894 - 1977
George Robert Le Ricolais, born 1894 at La Roche
sur Yon, France, studied and worked in France
from 1912 to 1951 and taught at the University of
Pennsylvania from 1954 to 1975.
The war of 1914-1918 prevented the completion of
his university studies in mathematics and physics.
He received three serious wounds, the Military
Cross and the Croix de Guerre with two citations.
From 1918 to 1943 he practiced as an hydraulics
engineer, exhibited his constructivist air-brush
paintings, published his poetry, and wrote two
seminal articles concerned with his life's search for
structural configurations of "zero weight and
infinite span."
His 1935 paper on 'Composite Sheets and their
Application to Lightweight Metallic Structures'
('Les T8les Composiies introduced the concept
...I)
of corrugated stress skins to the building industry.
For this research he was awarded the Medal of the
French Society of Civil Engineers.
His 1940 'Research on Three Dimensional Network
Systems' ('Essai sur des Systgmes introduced
...I)
many architects to the concept of space frames. For
this paper, further research and numerous patents
on spatial structures, he received, in 1962, the
Grand Prix of the Cercle d18tudesArchitecturales
de France. Andre Malraux, the French Minister of
Culture, presented the award and declared, "The
French State needs your audacity and vision," and
Le Monde wrote that Le Ricolais was "the father
of space structures."
Since 1928, and his fine arts studies at the Academy
of La Grande Chaumigre in Paris, LeRicolais
continued to explore his constructivist interests
through air-brush paintings. In addition to
exhibitions in France his work could be seen in
private collections and the Museum of Fine Arts
in Nantes.
Throughout his life LeRicolais wrote poems - University of Pennsylvania.
infrequently publishing them.
After the 1939-1945 war, which hindered the
development of his consulting and contracting
practices, he collaborated from 1947-1958 on
several built projects: a school, a vacation colony,
an aircrafthangar, a covered market, a factory, two
exhibition pavilions, an observatory and
meteorology station, experimental housing, and a
church.
In 1951, at the age of 57, Le Ricolais left France to
pursue his research in the USA where he led
'experiments in structure' workshops at the
Universities of Illinois-Urbana, North Carolina,
Harvard, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Le Ricolais' major influence derives from
publications on his experimental structures and his
'way of thinking' during twenty years of research
at the University of Pennsylvania.
His belief that he had "found no better discipline
in this unpredictable problem of form, than to
observe the prodigies created by nature," led to
his studies of soap-films and radiolariae. His
observation that "it is an enormous reservoir of
unexploited forms, mathematics and its symbols,"
led to his unique use of topology. Being against
"people eating symbols all the day," and believing
that "the contad with things is full of meaning,"
he insisted on the building and testing of physical
models of all concepts. His use of the paradox as
a logical construct meant that in his structures, "the
order of destruction should follow the order if its
construction," and that in his studies for the
partition of urban space he proposed "the future
objective is not how to structurebuildings but how
to structure circulations."
LeRicolais stated "the secret is to be curious." His
curiosity was honored by the American Institute
of Architects for his teaching, becoming a Fellow
in 1973, and for his research in 1976 with theA.1.A.
Research Medal. In 1974 he was appointed to the
Paul Philippe Cret Chair in Architecture at the
LeRicolais died, in 1977, in Paris.
On NATURE
I've found no better discipline in this unpredictable
problem of form than to observe the prodigies created
by nature. I mean you've got to have an eye, but the
world is full of marvelous little things; their beauty
and rigor is an amazing incentive.
Through the strange ways of Nature, there is far more
intelligence in those fugitive gems than in any work of
any architect or engineer. The answers formulated by
nature to our queries are more significant than the
questions themselves.
The book of nature is so big that sometimes you find
an answer to a question you have never formulated
yourself.
Some structures in nature reveal models to us, and
we shall try to define their characteristics in terms of
the strength of materials.
There's always some kind of no man's land between
the strength of materials and biology.
Does Nature act as a philanthropic agency? Certainly
not.
Because as soon as you go outside certain limits all sorts
of problems are waiting for you. It's a law of
nature...things and their proportion.One has to follow
the laws of nature before commanding nature.
Radiolariae ...this stupendous vocabulary of forms
belongs to the ancient era of creation, where strongly
geometrical structures prevailed. The reason for such
economy of material is certainly a mystery of
Nature ...their strange and delicate
structures...networks of scaffolding...the architecture of
radiolariae suggests problems of the greatest
interest ...triangulated systems in three
dimensions ...separation of tension and
compression...the hexagonal pattern of the
mesh...geodesics.
Why should only a zoologist look at Radiolariae?There
are forms that encompass the properties of both
stressed-skin and triangulated structures. Of course
you can't just convert these things into building
structures,but there is much to admire and understand.
You see some kind of coherence and a purity of design
which is amazing, which is frightening.
Minerals have a kind of unknown prestige. The
equipartition of space is a theme familiar to
crystallographers ...the characteristics of crystalline
media present a structural analogy.
Soap film experiments...there is no better approach to
the difficult problem of Form. The amazing beauty and
rigor of the configurations obtained is an incentive to
the eyes and the mind ...in Future, the right angle is out.
Of course in terms of strength-to-weight, spiders are
amazing, much better than we can do.
Together with life comes the problem of growth, and
until now man has not been capable of making
machines that grow.
On MATHEMATI CS
Mathematics and its symbols are an enormous reservoir
of unexploited forms.
These abstract concepts, which may be devised purely
for the support of thought, enable our mind to escape
the anthropomorphic attitude and confront an
unknown universe. Probably magic and poetry in
ancient times had the same power.
Mathematics has revealed a fantastic repertoire of
forms, and it is both fascinating and disquieting to
witness the total abstraction made by scientists from
the real nature of things.
Sometimes I wish we could have a physical model or
apparatus that would show us the reality of, say, Euler 's
formula for polyhedra, F - E + V = 2, so that these things
which are supremeIy abstract could be conveyed in a
direct way.
Accuracy is the supreme quality of any mathematical
thinking. ax2 + bx + c = 0, the elegance of symbolism.
The heroic work of mathematics is to simphfy.
Should we assume that without mathematics the art of
architecture is liable to disaster?
The aesthetic beauty of the new mathematical form..of
.
the monkey saddle.
Topology: a new mathematical thinking where shapes
and magnitudes of configurations are of no importance.
In its relationship with architecture, at least for problems
of circulatory nature, topology plays not only a role on
the economy of partitions, but a far more reaching
consequence is to be foreseen in the economy of
displacements, i.e., time.
The study of structures should be considered with a
topological mind.
On PAINTING
But why all this? It's because I was not sure of my hand
to make the transition between black and gray and white.
You see it comes to this notion of compensation:at some
point you come to enjoy the thing you are lacking.
In painting you just do away with all this comparing,
this fastidious way of mathematics. In mathematics, it's
always precision; you have to know a few definitions,
you have to compare, to measure, you have to deduct.
When you do painting, you have this wonderful feeling
of the unknown- especially since really I had no
discipline I came very late to this, so 1 didn't know how
to paint; but I made the best out of ignoring how to paint.
As soon as I got to know a little more about it, I was not
so amused. What was prodigiously amusing for me were
my mistakes.
There's a technique. This I would ignore fantastically,
and many times that's probably the way I did my best
painting. I was naturally very incompetent with my
hands and could not draw-yet I had this eye for fairly
exact definition of form. That's why I used the airbrush.
I made some kind of stencil of cardboard, so you had a
very wonderful definition of black and white.
On AESTHETICS
I don't think one can find valid criteria in the sense of
beauty by itself. It exists, no question about that, but
everyonehas his own coordinates; what may be beautiful
to you may not be beautiful to me, unless perhaps you
explain. I don't think it's innate. You see how your point
of new is modified by a certain amount of culture.
Some people have got a sense of order, a private sense
of things being symmetrical, which I have not.
I think it's a pseudo-order, because neither in nature nor
in art do you find this kind of total repetition that puts
you to sleep.
Perhaps what we call beauty is something that we are
used to.
We are interested in uncovering some privileged
arrangement of things.
Liberation from pure aesthetic considerations and a
return to a mathematics of reason inspired by nature and
governed by numbers.
On RESEARCH
'To research what? Research of what?' 'Zero weight,
infinite span.'
You know it can't be done, but at least it's a limit that
we could try to go to. Man never satisfied with
himself-he wants to transcend himself, or to find
some kind of thing that doesn't exist. The secret is to
be curious.
We can only appropriate and fully possess what we
ourselves discover. What you find on the way is often
more intriguing than what you first set out to do. A
non-anthropomorphic attitude of the mind before the
unknown.1 am certain that the history of science is a
prerequisite to the study of forms.
It is a waste of time to integrate differential equations
before seeing the vibration of a string.The frequency
of that vibrating string to someone with well-trained
ears is almost as precise as that given by computation.
Deductions and propositions have to prove
themselves, and not by seduction or good intentions;
they have to come to facts.
Analogies illustrate things which are very difficult to
comprehend. To find some correlation with things
which exist, in which there could be an analogy. I won't
say this should lead to application. It's a two-way
system:we go from the concrete to the abstract. There's
...
a question of rapport between reality and symbols.
Sometimesyou need to see things, or experience them,
where your eyes can help your mind. This need for
representation, this need to make some kind of
physical model as soon as a concept comes to us,
proves how infantile our mind is. It's a support. The
contact with things is full of meaning- you know
where you are, you have something that exists. It
should be important for any man to have some identity
with phenomena.
One has to start on the concrete and slowly converge
with the abstract,but always keeping your eye on how
the symbolism works with the fact. Observation
should be the companion of intuition. I tend to rely
on the test as the companion of intuition. As if to
propose welding torches to Plato.
The pressurization of light envelopes, which is
currently favored in the Atlas missile was claimed as
early as 1892 by a citizen of Russia. Patience, then,
should be the cardinal virtue of inventors. Even if the
apparent applications for our researches are ignored,
if the work is sound it will find its rightful place.

The artist and the work are like the
"lover and the loved one.. .ftrsed as one. "
(St. John of the Cross)
The profundity and fecundity of the dialogue
between Le Ricolais and his work is intractable if
less than a thorough study is made of his archives.
Le Ricolais believed that questioning was the best
method of producing thoughts that could arrive
at an unchanging "indestructible idea." "To
discover the nature of things, the secret is to be
curious," he often said.
His writings evidence methods of thought derived
from his multifarious interests and influences. Like
the architect, he employed analogy, a process of
reasoning from parallel cases; although his mother,
a teacher of natural history, may have impressed
on him that analogy refers to resemblance of form
or function between organs essentially different.
As an inventor, he uncovered paradoxical ideas
and things which conflicted with preconceived
notions of what is reasonable or possible. His
father, a defense lawyer, may have instructed him
on the meaning of paradox. As an engineer, he
used the logic of the empirical methods of the
applied natural sciences.
A poet, as was his father, Le Ricolais could depart
from reason with confidence, believing that
madness is the falsepunishment of a false solution,
but by its own virtue it brings to light the real
problem, which can then be truly resolved. It
conceals beneath error the secret enterprise of
truth. "We owe the invention of the arts to
deranged imaginations," said Saint-Evremond.
Le Ricolais came to Penn in 1954 as and engineer
and sometime architect, developed over the course
of 20 years in his experimental workshop into a
master-inventor of structures, and left Penn as the
complete poet with moments of the madness of
genius. In order to understand his own artistry,
he sought to describe the ways of thinking that
characterized his bcriture, handwriting or personal
morality of form:
"Every one has his own coordinates...we can only
appropriate and fully possess what we ourselves
discover ...the contact with things is full of
meaning.. you need to see things, or experience
them, where your eyes can help your mind ... there
are phases of thinking ...what you find on the way
is often more intriguing than what you first set out
to do... I'm more interested in uncovering some
privileged arrangement of things than in working
for accuracy."
Le Ricolais accepted the engineer's task of
minimizing the potential energy of the loading and
maximizing the strain energy of the structure. To
reach this goal of 'zero weight and infinite span,'
he built "interminable...comparisons of opposed
solutions to a project," believing that "deductions
and propositions must prove themselves, and not
be mere seduction or good intentions; they must
come to the facts." In over 20 years, more than
200 structural models in steel were built and
tested by his students in response to his belief that
it was important "to have some identity with
phenomena" and "to start on the concrete and
slowly converge with the abstract."
These experiments led him to conclude that "in the
search for structures, two opposed attitudes are
possible: to start with a 'block' and work by means
of excisions or, on the contrary, to start with a
germinal cell in order to arrive at the definitive form
by means of addition, as in some arrangements of
repetitive elements," and to employ the "structural
dis-symmetry between tension and compression,
not by following the conventional differentiation
of alternating members, common in trusses, but by
decomposing the whole structure into two groups
acting massively and brought into equilibrium by
trussing." An example of this is the queen-post
truss, his favorite 'germinal cell,' which was
transformed into many automorphic
configurations.
Le Ricolais' contribution to the development of
structural theory is to be found in his copious notes
on the 'image method,' a graphical technique for
the analysis of three-dimensional, hyperstatic
configurations. These notes testify to his intuition
of the abstract and demonstrate that his mind dwelt
in three-dimensionalspace while others "remained
in the plane."
"Analogies illustrate in an amusing way things
which are very difficult to comprehend. And even
if the analogy by itself isn't right, there is
something there: it is the almighty power of an
idea, as an incentive." If not the first to study
natural form, LeRicolais was a pioneer: soap films
and bubbles, spiders and their webs, eggshells, and
the micro structure of crystals and bones all came
under his delighted scrutiny. Of his beloved
radiolariae, forms that encompass the properties
of both stressed skin and triangulated structures,
he asked, "why should only a zoologist look at
radiolariae?"
He "found no better discipline in this unpredictable
problem of form than to observe the prodigies
created by nature ...their beauty and rigor is an
amazing incentive." The incentive to study nature
and the analogy resulted from his experience that
"the book of nature is so big that sometimes you
find an answer to a question you have never
formulated yourself."
In mathematics and its symbols, too, he saw " an
enormous reservoir of unexploited forms" which
enables the mind "to escape the anthropomorphic
attitude." In Euler's law of topological invariance
for polyhedra,
F-E +V =2 (Faces - Edges + Vertices = 2)
he experienced the "rapport between reality and
symbols" and spoke of the "elegance of
symbolism."
With great originality, Le Ricolais combined
structural concepts which seemed incompatible
(e.g. strength and fragility, construction and
destruction) into paradoxes, which initially seem
absurd but on closer examination offer profound
insights into the behaviour of structures. To fight
the "curse of bending" he considered the queen
post to be "a glorious device, to create fictitious
supports, the paradox of columns suspended in
the air! The human skeleton is a structure
composed of holes, all different in dimension and
distribution, but with an unmistakable purpose in
their occurrence. So we arrive at an apparently
paradoxical conclusion, that the art of structure is
how and where to put the holes; to build with
holes, to use things which are hollow, things which
have no weight. The eggshell is also a revelation;
the notion of strength and fragility."
The inefficiencies of joints in space frames caused
him to conclude that the art of making light
structure is accomplished with big, heavy
members. His paradoxical definition of the rope
as stiff and hollow led him to suspect that more
the more chains, or linkages, that are introduced
into a structure, the greater will be it's strength and
rigidity. Of spanning in three directions rather than
the orthogonal two, he noted, "the more ways
there are, the less we have to use them." His
studies of vibrations, column buckling and
corrugated surfaces led to the conclusion that "the
order of destruction of a system should follow
the order of its construction."
Le Ricolais knew that poiesis of structureswas still
an art in which, "you see some kind of amazing
coherence and purity of design which is amazing,
which is frightening." What amazed him was not
the coherence but its mystery, and what frightened
him was that "things themselves are lying, and
so are their images!" And if the beauties of nature
were lying, then perhaps his own conclusions had
missed the truth. Believing that his lemniscate
funicular polygon of revolution best exemplified
his structural truths, he built a structure, the aleph-
bridge, which manifested the opposite of that logic.
It proved to be ten percent less efficient than the
truth of lemniscate. This result caused him to
question the validity of his life's research and
conclusions: reason seemed to have a small
percentage priority over unreason. His occasional
cynicism said, "That's what I call the beauty of
failure, the art of using failure. If it works, phut!
we escape forwards." His research, beneath this
error, concealed the secret enterprise of truth.
Motivated by curiosity, Le Ricolais was always
capable of "escaping forward." He said of his
restlessness, "man is never satisfied with himself;
he wants to transcend himself, or find some other
kind of thing that doesn't exist. He wants to go
farther. Of course it a way of devastating yourself,
because there is just no end to it."
by Peter Mc Cleary
T H E A R T O F STRUCTLTRE I S W H E R E T O P U T T H E H O L E S .
I f you think abouf fhe voids instead of working zoifh
fhe solid elements, the f r u f h appears.
The structure is composed of holes, all different in dimension
and distribution, but with an unmistakable purpose in their
occurrence.
So we arrive at an apparently paradoxical conclusion, that
the art of structure is how and where to put the holes. It's
a good concept for building, to build with holes, to use
things which are hollow, things which have no weight,
which have strength but no weight.
funicular: [funis; rope: -culus; forming]
polvvon: [polus; many: -gonos; angled]
revolution: [re;again, back: volvere; roll.]
The idea of the Funicular Polygon of Revolution [FPR]
system was to see how we could weave cables and generate
a tension network following a minimal surface, by rotating
funicular strings around circular compression diaphragms
and connecting the tension network to an axial compression
member. From some topological considerations, we were
interested in developing two basic notions: the high
redundancy yielded by the degree of connectivity of the
compression system, and the chain action of the tension
cables, acting as bundles of fibers.
It seems that in the search for structures two opposed
attitudes are possible: to start with a 'block' and work by
means of excisions or, on the contrary, to start with a
germinal cell in order to arrive at the definitive form by
means of addition, as in some arrangement of repetitive
elements.
We took the first approach in the FPR system: we tre;
the structural dissymmetry between tension :
compression not by following the conventio
differentiationof alternating members, common in trus
but by decomposing the whole structure into two gro.
acting massively and brought into equilibrium
tensioning.
For the tension part of the structure, a network T
substituted for separate cables, yielding a unifo
distribution of material in space, distinguished fro1
continuous membrane only by holes: by virtue of
weaving, the forces in the individual cables woi
approach a statistical average and the fundamen
vibrations would be replaced by their harmonics, a v
favorable condition considering the problem of fluttei
single-cable systems.
For the diaphragm compression members, whose funct
was to maintain the undeformability of the network,
closed configuration of the torus gave the best use
material. Except when the great tensile forces can
annulled by anchorages, a straight internal tube would
the most econoinical solution for the main compressi
part of the structure.
The phenomenon of the eggshell is also a revelation, put1
forward this kind of contradiction of a form whicl
extremely strong and yet locally very fragile. Before
age of thirty this notion of strength and fragility - the 1
were incompatible in my thinking.
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MORE IS L E S S
How nzuch is known about the flow of gases, fluids,
and electrons and how little about the circulation of
hulizan beings.
Our notion of static, crystallized form is often an illusion
given by our defective senses. We no longer have the plaza
of ancient Rome for our forum, but some kind of nervous
system enabling people to come in contact with others and
get to their business in the shortest and fastest way. Now
that our movements are increasing even faster than the
growth of population, our future objective may not be at
all how to structure buildings, but how to structure
circulations.
The distribution of space into four orthogonal directions is
derived from the form of man himself, and the recognition
of some astronomical phenomena, such as the sun's rising
in the east. The ancient Egyptian's use of the right angle
gave rise to a new geometrical order. It is this geometry of
right angles that has formed the basis for determining the
arrangement of urban streets and lots. But a systematic
topological analysis of various grid patterns based on the
study of the number of intersections for a given area and a
unit segment length yields an interesting answer to the
bothersome problem of circulation.
In distributing stresses, a triaxial network is more efficient
than either a biaxial or radial system, both being examples
of wanting to build in space while your mind remains in
the plane.
The application of this or any plan calls for an intelligent
vision of things to come.
We need more efficient systems for this intercommunic;
of urban space, and a prerequisite will be some b
arrangement of potential routes, with a minimum nu1
of intersections.
The Trihex network, a semi-regular tessellation of reg
hexagons and triangles is a good theoretical patte~
consider. Compared with an orthogonal grid ove
equivalent area, the length of streets between interseci
being equal, the Trihex network has at least 18 percent ft
intersections, the combined length of streets woulc
shorter by at least 13.5percent and the average route wc
be about 12 percent shorter.
The triaxial distribution of the Trihex network also gik
much richer combinatorial potentiality than orthogc
distribution In fact it corresponds to the introduction
new alphabet - not only producing new sounds but
allowing a given message to be conveyed in a much shc
time; this reflects a law of cybernetics, that the length
message is inversely proportional to the logarithm of
number of signs in the code being used, resulting in
apparent paradox that the more ways there are, the
we have to use them.
The partitioning of space into triangular lots will probz
appear heretical to conventional engineers: however,
idea may intrigue those who are acquainted with
structural properties of triangular grids and know that
type of floor system can bring about saving of more ti
30 percent over orthogonal.
A STIFF, HOLLOW ROPE
Of cotrrse that is a figtrre of speech, but nzy mind is
obsessed by the idea of going inside a rope.
rope; solid cord made by twisting together strands of thread,
wire, etc.
With these tension-net tubes, we have been trying to find
the way to make a hollow rope. Who knows a better
structure than a rope? - and if you can make a rope on a
bigger scale with nothing inside, it works as if the material
were an extremely thin sheet. But it will be easier to
manipulate than sheet metal, and it won't buckle, because
it's tensioned.
The notion of fiber, or a linear succession of strongly
connected grains of matter, has played an important role in
the science of strength of materials, and the technology of
ropes and cables and their structural configurations in itself
represents an enormous accumulation of ingenuity.
The more chains you introduce into a structure, the greater
will be its strength and rigidity, i.e., the art of making an
efficient structure lies in adequately distributing a
maximum number of holes, connecting as rigidly as possible
the chains surrounding the holes.
To extrapolate a given quantity of matter into two
dimensions, or in other words to have materials and
structures working in more than one way.
The introduction of forces into systems can increase
strength of materials.
To increase strength is to reduce weight, the worst en
of the engineer. To me, even greater than the practical re:
is the beautiful and pure notion that forces of an abs
nature could be a substitute for concrete and ponde:
materials.
Yet crisscrossing materials was certainly among the
rewarding enterprises of primitive man - as in basketry
clothing - and far-reachingthrough it's mental assimila
since such experience showed how to establish connect
between the first and second dimension; a particuk
of this kind is enough to introduce a hairline between
degrees of civilization.
Speaking very generally, we could say that a great age
begun.
With a system of elevated transit, we could perhaps o
-
up a new, or lost dimension the aerial view of the I
the city being seen as a whole without losing the feelin
orientation. The form of a city is too important to be lo:
subterrranean traffic or even seen from the limited vi
of corridor streets.
 THE ORDER OF DESTRUCTION FOLLOWS
THE ORDER OF CONSTRUCTION
Sheets of corrugated nzetal-this nzaterial had some
unknown qziality about it, like thejlutingofancient
colunzns.
It's this repetition of form-this kind of sine curve which
goes on endlessly, which repeats itself. It has some physical
properties that are interesting...It is fairly good for rain water,
and corrugation is a wonderful way to increase moment of
inertia. Undulated cardboard is infinitely more stiff than
plain cardboard.
As far as pure form is concerned, any corrugated sheet of
metal will give an idea of what we call an automorphic
shape, which reproduces itself with periodicity. The
modulus of inertia expresses this periodicity.
About thirty-five years ago the French navy asked how to
make some very rigid tubes for their optical telemetry
devices. We had already done some work on the Isoflex
System for various structural elements, based on
superimposingsheets of corrugated metal crosswise, or even
corrugated plywood and thought this product would be
equally advantageous in a tubular form. When compared
with the plain tubes of half-inch wall thickness, the Isoflex
tube was not only lighter, but also considerably reduced
vibrations,which were disastrous for the precision of their
range finder.
The search for an optimum design for columns, which we
call automorphic tubes, is an example of how the study of
vibrations may lead to the creation of new forms.
The scheme consisted of splitting the fundamental in1
harmonics, by means of an adequate triangulation, in ;
a way as to avoid buckling, and using the same weig:
metal as in a thin axially-loaded tube.
With the automorphic tube, we tried to extend the not
of connectivity and repetitive form, inherent in the Is(
system, to a triangulated structure, or in other words to
some kind of hybrid system between stressed-skin
triangulation.
The inevitable counterpart of our work with ten;
networks was to investigate what might be the optin
form to give to an axial compression member of minin
weight.
To see the pattern offailure under axial compressive foi
Many of the tubes showed erratic buckling, but
combinationof tetrahedra and square-based pyramids
a rather interesting performance. It's quite a good b
dance. The buckling length was broken into its harmor
The inner bundle of tubes tended toward a convex curva
while the outer one took a concave curnature of gre
radius. This harmonic buckling allows the maximum i
of the section to work in compression, with failure occur:
at the elastic limit of the material, and compared wi.
plain tube of similar weight and diameter, this tube cc
withstand about 25 percent greater axial forces.
A conclusion of perhaps purely epistemological vz
would be that the order of destruction of a system sha
follow the order of its construction.
MIRAGE IN THE IMAGE
We have studied many structures related to soapfilms,
and many devices are derived from those experiments.
There is no better approach to the difficult notion of form
than soap film experiments, where nature displays a
fantastic array of thin membranes called minimal surfaces
or surfaces of economy. Fundamental laws of physics are
made perceptible displaying visually what would be
cumbersome to demonstrate with the help of abstract
notions.
The amazing beauty and rigor of the configurations
obtained is an incentive both to the eyes and to the mind.
Any closed wire contour dipped into a soap and glycerin
solution generates a film of a minimal surface or least area.
Curiously, this film has little physical reality, it is the pure
image of molecular attractions.
We go very near phenomena many times that look
complicated and are simple, but more often it's not as simple
as it looks. Here the bubbles don't exist; we speak of a
film, but really there's no film, only a phenomenon of
attraction of molecules which are always moving. We can't
simulate this in any other physical or chemical way; you
need the liquid, so the bubble is unstable and just dries up.
There we are again, there is some kind of mirage in the
image. One can be fooled so easily by the appearance of
things and not see what is behind.
Oriental wisdom has codified the problem in the proverb
saying, 'things themselves are lying, and so are their
images.'
The first part of our soap film experiments was to rt
these film configurations to some well defined polyhe
and by puncturing systematically their faces, :
experimentally the general behaviour of the configurat
obtained.
Immersing a warped hexagonal frame into a soap solul
a two-curvature surface is obtained, the 'monkey sadc
a sort of three dimensional spider web.
Our special interest in choosing this surface from am
many others is that it is a convex surface, and that havi:
regular hexagon as its horizontal projection, it is very ne
the best solution to obtain maximum surface for a gi
perimeter. Besides, with a hexagonal plan the I
membrane is easily converted into a triangular latticl
network where the tri-axial distribution of the tens
cables is more efficient than a bi-axial system, where c
two cables meet at one intersection.
This surface has three valleys and three high point!
mountains. Its center (parabolic point), has an inflectio:
zero curvature. It intersects a horizontal plane close to
tangent plane at the center, along hyperbolas of increas
curvatures. Those hyperbolas form an isotropic ne
isotropic curves.
One important observation was that the elastic behavi
of such a system was noticeable more extreme than in
computations, which took into account only pure tensj
This discrepancy can only be explained by the somew
paradoxical fact that pretensioned elements may abs
compressive forces, in accord with prestressing theory
 LP
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LIGHT STRUCTURES WITH HEAVY MEMBERS
It may be of some interest to note that the motivation of
otll. work was less concerned with a new space fvame
configt~rationthan with investigating the practicality
of a nearly jointless system.
If thirty years ago I had been successful in promoting the
space-frame system, I wouldn't be here today. At that time,
no engineer would go the way of space-frames.
And now I don't believe at all in space frames .... There are
phases of thinking.
It was a great mistake to say that the art of building is to
build with match sticks, that if you want to build light
structures you must use light members because a group of
light members will be light. It took me quite a long time to
see that it was just the opposite; it's the art of making a
light structure with big, heavy members. A paradox.
The problem is how to avoid intersection. As you know,
we can get industrially produced profiles of material in
infinite lengths, provided they can be shipped; so the
practice of cutting them into many little pieces and then
putting them back together by means of heavy and costly
joints seems a highly dubious endeavor in terms of our
technology. Here, we have reduced the joint to a simple ring
at each vertex of the connecting elements, which allows us
to use continuous, superimposed members for each of the
networks; even without clamping devices, the friction
would be sufficient to secure stability.
The decisive cost factor depends not only on the numt
joints, but also on the number of branches at each join
the cost reduction for fewer bars, fewer joints and fc
bars per joint would largely pay for the increased sec
of these members.
Tetragrid configurations give an elegant demonstratic
a light structure following the principle of contin
instead of the inadequate joint per joint procedure.
reducing the number of branches per joint we can
repetitive elements throughout the structure.
The joint is replaced by a kind of key, a tetrahedral elen
which is stable and which reduces the buckling lengi
the grid members.
In a three dimensional structure composed of b
automorphism would mean repetitive joints of iden
incidence, or reproducing the same number of branche:
joint. As simple as the principle might appear, its applica
requires a certain amount of judgment because of
multiplicity of possible combinations with any gj
number of branches per joint.
What we've been trying to do with many of tf
automorphic structures is to work with determinate syst
and then find where you can use more bars, working u
indeterminate systems which are still economical.
Redundancy has great power - by a somewhat curj
paradox, it is often the indeterminate structure whic
more easily conceived and sometimes the more ea
built.
COLUMNS SUSPENDED IN THE A I R
Maybe we know foo many fhings now - we learn,
zue analyze, and yef we rarely discover fhings as
wonderful as fhe queen post.
It is my conviction that to use high tensile steel in
conventional trusses is next to insanity.
The time is not too far distant when to use steel as a
compression member will b e as unthinkable as to use
concrete for tension.
The rule of the game for trusses is to fight bending, or to
substitute for bending with tension and compression,
which is exactly what the king and queen post do; bending
is cancelled and replaced by compression in the top chord
and tension in the bottom.
You just come to realize how much more ingenious our
forerunners were in the art of structures. Nobody will ever
know his name, but whoever had this idea must have been
terrifically intuitive; every time I use the system, I think
about the joy he may have had in building and testing it, to
find that it answered his expectations.
It's a glorious device, to create fictitious supports, the
paradox of columns suspended in the air.
You see, its beauty and simplicity lie in composition, or the
difficult art of taking one plus one and making something
that is greater than two. You're putting together two
elements which are not necessarily the same - in some way
they may even be opposites - so that they become
compatible.
The invention of ways to use together materials of
different properties by differentiatingtheir possibilitie,
had a great impact on the evolution of structures.
We are more interested in performance, that is to
minimum weight of structure - than in economic struc
Radiolariae ...we should study them carefully as hi,
elaborate pieces of work ...one peculiar species...where
have a ball inside a ball inside yet another ball ...why shi
there be this kind of recurrence of form?...this princip
automorphism ...some kind of geometric assemblag
forms which go into one another, repeating themselve
The queen post as a germinal cell repeating itself in
itself...an automorphic queen post. So our choice 01
queen post was based on the efficiency of having the s
span trisected rather than bisected, and the idea of
Polyten system was simply to extend this classical solui
with automorphic repetitions...
The photo was taken just before the model failed, und
load of 240 pounds, or 60 times its own weight. You cc
see from the undulation what kind of fight was going
pushing against bending: instead of simple deflection
had something like sine waves, these curves showing
the thing was working and that one could begin to cor
the system and its deformations, by adjusting
precambering and tension, or by further repetitions 01
queen post ...that is, the beauty of failure, the art of u:
failure.
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 VlSIONS AND PARADOX:
An exhibition of the work of

R O B E R T LE R I C O L A I S

CURATOR:
Professor Peter McCleary
Department of Architecture
University of Pennsylvania

PANELS/ CATALOGUE/ PUBLICI'IY

David Grissino
Michele Dempsey

COMPUTER C n .. -_-ilON:
17j z&iviu&c
~dnathanRe0
Ashishkumar Amin
Peter Hau

MODEL DISPLAY
Greg Colling
William Whitaker
Sarah Roche

MODEL RESTORATION:
Koji Oki
Keith Jundanian
Jason Danielson
Erik Midskogen
Jeff Cohen
Denis Pierantini

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Julia Converse, Director
Architectural Archives
University of Pennsylvania
Lindsay Falck, Assistant Dean
Graduate School of Fine Arts
University of Pennsylvania

EXHIBITION FUNDED IN PART BY

National Endowment for the Arts
Department of Architecture
University of Pennsylvania
Graduate School of Fine Arts
University of Pennsylvania

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