Tensegrity structure with Jakob ropes

The TenCylindre is a seven-meter-high cylindrical tension structure designed by French artist Clément Vieille for watchmaker Hermès' booth at Watches and Wonders 2021 in Geneva. The structure was designed and built in an international collaboration with the group AEA SA.

The structure, consisting of 180 carbon rods, 180 compression rings, 84 radial ropes, 348 spiral ropes, is suspended and unfolds along its axis. The structure gets its stability from the state of self-tensioning. This tension is achieved by the horizontally integrated Jakob ropes.

For the structure, Jakob Rope Systems was allowed to supply two different types of stainless steel ropes. One type of rope compresses the tensegrity structure. These 84 radial ropes (4 mm) are arranged on 14 horizontal levels. Each level includes six ropes. The second type of ropes 348 (3 mm) spirally arranged ropes with clockwise and counterclockwise. These ropes are further divided into those with movement outside the cylinder and those with internal movement. This results in the shape of a hollow cylinder with an external diameter of 3.35 meters and an internal diameter of 1.65 meters.

After the end of the Geneva watch exhibition, the tensegrity structure returned to the EPFL laboratory in Lausanne. Here, the structure was subjected to a series of tests. The tests were intended to show the extent to which theoretical calculations and the real behavior of the structure corresponded.