Tensegrity

Tensegrity is a system of balancing tension and compression forces to create architectural pieces that “float.”

Colorful geometric structure made of elastic sticks in red, green, purple, yellow, and black.
Two squeegees with black handles, one with a yellow blade and one with a green blade.
Colorful geometric structure made of popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and toothpicks.

Use SUMM's Tensegrity Kit developed by Nick Rauh to experiment with this design principle by crafting your own sculptures or building example structures based on polyhedra!

Print your own tensegrity kits

Download tensegrity .STL files
Buy the compatible bands

Read more about Tensegrity here.

This toy was designed by Nick Rauh with support from the Seattle Universal Math Museum and Studio Infinity.