A mechanical problem
by Sunny Kalsi on 28 Sep 2005
I've been thinking, we use concrete a lot because it's good in compression, and compression is good. But what if you want a house that's suspended from the roof, instead of having the roof held up by the ground. Imagine a place with lots of water. You put 4 posts in the water, secure them as you want, and connect up a roof. Then you suspend the floor from the roof, and all the fixtures from the roof too, like the bed, tables, etc. Basically, you want the floor to not have anything but people on it. You can suspend things off the wall too, but the floor must carry no load (but still be able to have people on it). In addition, the entire ceiling must be able to carry equal load, same with the floor.
Is this possible? How? Don't read any further if you don't want coloured solutions.
My initial thoughts point to a tent-like structure, The four posts trace an arc and come to a point. The floor is connected to the sides, and also to the top. The arc path is such that there is even load allowed on the floor and ceiling. The floor weight is distributed such that the ceiling is pre-loaded to have even load on the ceiling and floor.