Töngi, S. H. (2018). Humped surfaces : reflections on a traditional high point design for membrane lightweight structures [Master Thesis, Technische Universität Wien]. reposiTUm. https://doi.org/10.34726/hss.2018.61940
The present work is focussing on a basic category of membrane lightweight structures. The humped tents or humped surfaces. “Humping up” a fabric is one of the most elementary measures to add double curvature hence to increase pre-stress in a tensile structure like a tent, an awning or in modern terms a membrane lightweight structure. Even if not finally documented, this supporting system was presumably developed thousands of years ago by the nomadic tribes of the Middle East and has kept dominating black tent architecture until today. In the early days of Frei Ottos work, several pavilions were developed as humped tents. The humped tent henceforth should be considered as one basic form of peak tent within the whole typology of membrane lightweight structure shapes. Nonetheless the concept has sparsely been used in bigger or more recent projects. Accordingly documents are scarce and hard to find. Humped tents are an underestimated species in the field of tensile architecture. Without any doubt humped surfaces are worth a deeper exploration and merit more attention in the building industry. The aim of this research is to give the reader an overview of the subject covering the history, the nature of such structures, the architectural potential and the technical challenges. Furthermore it is the authors a key intent to introduce proprietary design strategies. Newly invented techniques and refinements for traditional formfinding i.e. physical modelling, along with specifically developed computational simulation i.e. numerical formfinding are the pivotal contributions to an improved work flow in the design of humped membrane lightweight structures. This work represents an attempt to properly examine humped surfaces in tensile architecture and close a gap in the available means of labour.