General principles of tensile structures

Before describing the use of textiles for tensile structures in architecture and design it is important to explain how the structural behaviour of flexible 

1 A typical tensile membrane structure of the open covering type (photo John Chilton). 

Double-curved surfaces in pure tension may also be achieved by inflation e.g. soap bubbles, balloons and car tyres. However, these are synclastic forms where the curvatures in two perpendicular directions are the same (i.e. either both concave or both convex). 

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