IN SEARCH OF LIGHTNESS. Past, present, and future of membrane space structures

Introduction
In ancient times the main cause for high weight of sustaining systems was due to bad structural performance and modest ratio values between the strength and weight of the used materials. Withstanding stones and bricks only to compression, they were used for construction schemes that were based on stabilizing the effect of gravity.
For this reason, domes, vaults, and arches were built with greater thickness to ensure that the curve of pressures generated by the weight of the structure would be less affected by accidental loads. With the introduction of new geometric mathematical knowledge, of new building materials such as steel, reinforced concrete, and membranes and of a more “sustainable” thought (in terms of material-realization and environmental impacts), the relationship between “load-bearing weight and weight that is carried” is considerably reduced, thus allowing to associate new and more efficient constructions schemes and structural typologies. The tensile structures, for example, whose discovery of the structural system has very ancient origins, are able to return an excellent compromise between weight and resistance by favoring also the possibility of covering large lights with limited anchoring points that are only structurally opposed to the monumentality of classic structures. […]