what, no examples?

here are a couple of books that might be of interest to you >>

lightness: the inevitable renaissance of minimum energy structures by adriaan beukers and ed van hinte

light tech: towards a light architecture by richard horden.

the horden book is particularly nice.

bump
I'd like to hear more about this

Hans-Joachim Schock: "Soft Shells" (Birkhäuser) is an excellent book if you're interested in tensile architecture, like Ron Herron's excellent Imagination Building roof cover. My overall favourite lightweight structure has to be Renzo Piano's and Peter Rice's mobile IBM Pavillion.

These are all interesting responses, thank you. But most of those books from Birkhauser are very expensive. Also, the Birdair stuff is too large scaled for what I am looking for.
How about some smaller canopies (entry canopies, or shading canopies that are more garden elements.)
Grazie

Check out Andrew Zago's Greening of Detroit Pavilion in Detroit.

i would maybe take a look at some old detail mags. i bet you might find one that discusses this issue.

Thanks guys, these are great
How about more?

Bump

what the heck is this 'bump' anyway? could you please stop doing that? what on earth is that supposed to mean?

[ok i'll bite]

"bump"

it's just a way to bring the thread back to the top cause i'm self important

yeah me too....bump

any new additions to the list from the past 3-4 years?

time to revive. its summer.

umbrella?

inventive fun things...

This can stretch into quite an extensive list here are some of my favorites:

First the classics, if you want to get into lightweight structures, start with Frei Otto and Jorg Schlaich . Both are master builders, Otto an architect and Schlaich an Engineer, who among many other things, invented strut and tie models for reinforced concrete design.

After words, check out the follow:
Horst Berger another designer involved in many different lightweight projects. This book is also especially cheap, though if possible, I would seak out the full color original edition.

More on the theory side of lightweight design, related to, but not exclusive to architecture, check out Lightness one of my personal favorite books on the subject. From a more detail oriented side of things, Huntington's book is excellent. It is written by the ASCE, you can image the style and presentation is a little different.

Other than those, any of the other Frei Otto books are good, especially the work at the Institute of Lightweight design in Stuttgart, Germany.

I knew I was forgetting one. And of course it is one of the best! check out Membrane Structures . It has many example projects from builders around the world, of varied size and age. Also contains excellent in depth information on membrane construction and materials, such as ETFE film and fluoropolymer glass fiber fabrics.