this is bit late to the party perhaps, but I've been thinking again about canopies and inspired by the helium plastic bags I think I may have found an option that: self-assembles, is cheap, easy to design, and is interesting/fun. see what you think.

I was wondering, for no particular reason, whether, if you attached a helium canister to an infinitely stretchable balloon*, it would float off:

but from here I started thinking about blimps and the hindenberg and realised that if one was to through a sheet over this guy:

you might get a scaled version of this (these aren't very good images but I think you get the idea):

what's nice is that, to build this big tent all you need to do is drape some canvas over a deflated weather balloon, tie the balloon/canvas down to three or more anchors (some bricks, a box of mud, etc.) and then turn on the gas. this means that, as well as being fun and easy to do, it might be suitable for temporary shelters for disaster relief (I think one of the other groups was loking at this at some point) as all you would need to deliver to the site would be the canisters or even just fly a blimp there and pop a cover on. clearly wind loading could be an issue, but then the structure could just be lowered in bad weather.


in the course of writing this I have unfortunately discovered that this idea is not 100% new:

http://idotimestwo.blogspot.com/2009/05/floating-away-at-altar.html

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMw20ZWf7VTjf_p0wRWJfAGvTFIBXfuoSJPPTk7Xw1vbT4clC6LKEd0pm1CKdRcrD8nLkWEejp-Xty-zU9DBbKKBMjD-TF5Uz55wn9mFzcYMEnKp_UuMDQsDZOJ8-ITkUqBdB1mCoMrTzC/s1600/IMG_0937.jpg


but then nothing is, and there's still plenty of scope to play with the idea. for instance, by placing the balloons on the inside and by stretching and folding the canvas you could achieve much greater lateral rigidity while achieving almost any shape/form you wanted. in way, this would be almost the exact inverse of what heinz isler did with concrete:

http://www.explorations-architecturales.com/data/upload/images/hst93.jpg

http://shadesofgreendesign.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/29.-.png



as I say, this may be a bit late in the day but I thought I'd put it out there anyway.

jago



*I was actually envisaging sticking a canister in one of these and then letting it float off like a chinese lantern. unfortunately it doesn't work (safety aside)