The lorimerlite framework, or Lorimer-Gilman truss, is designed to resist compressive forces with a minimal amount of structural material. The structure is inspired by the tetrahedral geometry of soap bubbles, which are constantly striving to optimise their form in terms of material usage.
Each structural element in the lorimerlite framework follows a geometry of shortest paths. The structure fills the largest volume of space with the shortest possible un-braced length of a predefined number of strut, making them inherently resistant to axial compression, forming a lightweight and high strength support structure.
The lorimerlite framework is actually an alteration of the geometry of soap bubbles clusters, where all edges in the cluster must bend slightly in order to achieve the optimum 109.5 degree angles at each vertex. In this framework each vertex is a rotated version of all neighboring vertices, allowing the struts to be straight while meeting at the required tetrahedral angles.
