Space frame design is a skeleton-type approach to building construction and automotive manufacturing that offers weight savings, increased stiffness, and increased durability. The concept dates back to the 1900s and is rooted in the natural stiffness of angular constructs. Spatial structures are most commonly employed in large rooftops and experimental buildings, while some high-end automakers continue to produce and develop new space-framed cars.
Primarily used in the context of building construction and automotive manufacturing, space frame design is a technique for putting a structure together using a skeleton-type approach, as opposed to traditional piece-by-piece or bottom-up construction. The benefits of the space frame design include weight savings, increased stiffness and increased durability over conventional alternatives. Although the concept dates back to the 1900s, spatial frames only began to see widespread adoption towards the end of the 21st century.
The main advantage of spaceframes – their large strength-to-weight ratio – is rooted primarily in the natural stiffness afforded by angular constructs. This is a concept borrowed from nature, as honeycombs, for example, are known to have tremendous strength for their relative mass. Alexander Graham Bell was the first to try to adapt this idea to man-made construction in the 1900s, particularly with the goal of making flying machines that were lighter and stiffer. Although Bell largely failed in his particular quest, another big name in science, Buckminster Fuller, took the roots of spatial structure theory and adapted them to building design with much greater success around the middle of the 20th century.
In architecture, spatial structures are most commonly employed in large rooftops, although more experimental buildings, such as the geodesic domes known as Biospheres, located in Oracle, Arizona, and Montreal, Quebec, are constructed entirely using the technique. A space frame roof is best thought of as an expanded version of a crane gantry, with cross corner posts running back and forth across the horizontal rafters. By spreading out over a soccer field or arena-like layout, the spatial structures become an economical and more attractive solution than using a series of pillars or other load-bearing technique. In addition to having less material needed, the simpler design requires less labor and also lasts longer, with less need for routine repairs or maintenance.
In automobile construction, the space frame design has generally been discarded in favor of the monocoque design by the manufacturing industry. However, some high-end automakers, including Acura®, Audi®, and Lamborghini®, continue to produce and develop new space-framed cars. In automobiles, a space frame design involves placing various sections of a car on a tubular frame, in an almost modular fashion. This offers the same benefits over traditional body-on-frame construction, such as space frame architecture over traditional buildings. The monocoque largely remains the preferred design school for automobiles, however, due in part to safety considerations that are irrelevant to architecture.
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