Double the tensegrity, triple the trouble

Over the past few months, LEGO tensegrity sculptures have been all the rage, with their gravity-defying stacking attracting builders of all stripes to try their hands. While most tensegrity structures consist of a single floating element, a few builders have managed to add another floating section to that, which makes the delicate balancing exponentially more difficult. David Roberts makes it look easy, though, with this tower of rings.

The Three RingsTensegrity sculptures stay aloft thanks to being held in tension with three tethers (chains in this case), but David’s model also adds tension to the rings themselves, which simply comprise Technic tread links joined inside out to make a tensioned circle. It all comes together to create a beautifully simple sculpture.

Now, who wants to try their hand at creating a tensegrity sculpture with three floating levels on top of the base? Any takers?

Want to see more tensegrity sculptures? Check out our LEGO Tensegrity archives for examples from tanks to dragons.

3 comments on “Double the tensegrity, triple the trouble

  1. Jimmy

    This is a nice fun MOC, but it is NOT a tensegrity structure. I dont’ want to take anythign away from it, but I do get a bit annoyed seeing things mis-labeled this way.

    Tensegrity structures have elements in compression acting against elements in tension. i.e. rigid struts and wire cables (or wood dowels and bungee cords, etc.). This MOC is simply balanced objects hanging on chains, with gravity responsible for the tension of the chains.

    A true tensegrity structure will hold it’s shape when inverted or on it’s side, it does not rely on gravity to create the tension.

  2. Jimmy

    To be clear, I’m talking about the 3-ring space MOC in the main post, not Mike L’s moc.

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