It looked warm and pleasant, adding a splash of colour as well as a teasing touch of the bucolic to an otherwise urban landscape. The practice was sometimes (and somewhat unreverentially) referred to as ‘architectural gunge’.

Wind forwards a decade or two and, today, it’s hard to find an artist’s impression of a new development that hasn’t got a tensile fabric structure or two dropped in - adding some welcome curves and colour to the mix.

Budgeting out design details

Could this be the new ‘architectural gunge’?

Well yes… and no. From memory, an awful lot of the fripperies added in at the proposal stage of a development somehow never made the final mix. After the scalpel had been applied to the budget, gunge bit the dust.

But tensile structures? Well they’re the mood of the moment, adding dazzle and zing to the most functional of structures; and, rather than adding to the bottom line, they are playing a big role in reducing budgets. They are a pragmatic addition to the artist’s impression.

Longer lasting tensile structures

They might look flimsy, but these are structures in new, high-tech fabrics that can last up to 40 years. And while they will never pretend to offer the same insulation values as bricks and mortar, they will keep out the elements, cover exterior areas without requiring bulky support structures and provide the perfect (and recyclable) solution for temporary requirements as well as permanent ones.

As evidence, step forward a host of the 2012 Olympic stadia – a great many of which will be graced by tensile structures, including the basketball and cycling arenas – and the main Olympic stadium itself. And, as every West Ham and Spurs fan will know, once the last medal has been handed over, that stadium will be reduced in size and enjoy a new life in football. The unneeded sections of tensile membrane will slide out and find a new use elsewhere.

3D tensile structures

But - unquestionably - we are only in the foothills of applying this technology. Waiting in the wings are materials which change colour under different stresses, and with the temperature. And did I mention 3D designs that can wrap a structure and give it a whole new lease of life? Perhaps I’ll leave 3D designs for another blog, there’s so much to say.

In the meantime, your thoughts, views and experiences on any or all of these topics will help turn one man’s doodlings into a stimulating discussion.