Mass to Membrane

Nicholas Goldsmith, FAIA, is the founder and principal of FTL Design Engineering Studio in New York and a fellow of the AIA and former chair of the Lightweight Structures Association. Prior, he was a designer for the Pritzker Prize Winner Frei Otto in Germany. Nic has designed exhibitions including exhibitions on solar energy for the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, and is featured in innumerable publications including FTL: Softness, Movement, Light (Academy Press, 1997). Julia van den Hout specialises in editorial, curatorial, and research projects within architecture, Original Copy aims to generate new productive content and open conversation, focusing on architectural discourse beyond the mere presentation of built work. Julia van den Hout founded Original Copy in 2014, after serving as director of press and marketing at Steven Holl Architects for over six years. In 2011, she co-founded CLOG, an international publication that critically explores one topic at a time from as many perspectives as possible.

"Nicholas "Nic" Goldsmith, FAIA, has been a major player for more than 40 years in the development of fabric architecture in North America and around the globe through his leadership of the innovative architectural/engineering firm FTL Design Engineering Studio, based in New York City." --Fabric Architecture "Anyone who thinks that heavy, sturdy materials determine the strength of a building clearly aren't familiar yet with the designs of Nic Goldsmith. In this book Goldsmith takes the reader on an inspiring journey through the history of architecture and the evolution from mass to membrane, from solid to thin and airy structures." --IMAGICASA Nic Goldsmith's Mass to Membrane reads as lightly and succinctly as his architecture. It is both a basic and reflective text on the history and evolution of lightweight, membrane-covered tensegrity structures and an architect's diary of creative problem-solving on the cutting edge of emerging new technologies. Starting with the earliest membrane structures: traditional American Indian teepees, Bedouin goat-hair tents, and Mongolian yurts, Goldsmith journeys over 4,000 years to acoustically refined and portable concert halls, to an iconic urban landmark: the luminous roof of the Rosa Parks transit center in Detroit, to a moveable and energy-efficient skyscraper. And for all its sophisticated scientific engineering, he also shows readers pure mathematic beauty: as in the delightful shade-providing canopy in the Sky Song plaza at Arizona State University. In all, across 40 years of award-winning international practice, Goldsmith's Mass and Membrane is a journey of the human imagination that reveals ethereal and economic options for a more sustainable future. By Anthony M. Tung author of Preserving the World's Great Cities