Kenneth Snelson (1927–2016) was an American sculptor and photographer who created the first tensegrity structures in the late 1940s while studying at Black Mountain College under Buckminster Fuller. Snelson’s sculptures consist of rigid metal tubes that appear to float in space, held in position by a continuous network of tension cables. No compression element touches another; the structure’s integrity comes entirely from the tension network.
Snelson called these works “floating compression” structures. Fuller later coined the term “tensegrity” (tensional integrity) to describe the structural principle, a naming that became a lasting source of disagreement between the two. Regardless of terminology, the principle — that a structure can maintain its shape through continuous tension rather than continuous compression — has been applied to understanding biological structures through the concept of biotensegrity, as developed by Stephen Levin.
Snelson’s best-known sculpture, Needle Tower (1968), stands 18 meters tall at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C.
Related
- Buckminster Fuller — architect who coined the term “tensegrity” for Snelson’s structural principle
- tensegrity in movement — the somatic application of this structural principle