Frame and Form

First part of a mini-series of two posts about the film Man on Wire. This documentary account of the feat performed by the circus performer Philippe Petit and 1974 when aided by a group of friends and supporters crossed the distance from the missing twin towers of the World Trade Center walking a tightrope without harness, wireless and of course without permission.

Portada Man On Wire

The documentary has won several film awards but that's not why they appear in Frame and Form. The reason we have decided to write about it is that many the qualities and working methods shown in the film are used in day to day structural design professionals.

And is that the deed to save the nearly 43 meters that separated the North and South tower is not trivial. Much ingenuity was behind the risky adventure, 6 years of preparation testify.

Philippe Petit on TV © 2008 Jean-Louis BLONDEAU / Polaris Images

The documentary shows how they faced the task of preparing facing something that no human being had previously tried. Being an illegal activity did not have the luxury of the cooperation of the authorities with the additional difficulty that entails.

Moments of respite in the cable Photo © 2008 Jean-Louis Blondeau / Polaris Images

In a first, posing as journalists, made many visits to the towers under construction which took pictures that would help them later to prepare. During these visits I found the wind at this point (417 m) and noted the possible points of support cable to use.

Field trip © 2008 Jean-Louis Blondeau - All rights reserved

Were also carried out several models in which it was planned in detail the modus operandi. The way to pass the cable on a tower to the other using a bow and arrow, the position of individual team members, how to anchor the cable to the elements of the facade were possible tasks through the use of models.

Finally, we tried to reproduce the conditions that would find Philippe Petit on the roof of the towers. The documentary shows how during the training sessions were co-Petit cable oscillate vigorously to reproduce the dynamic effects of wind.

Here we present this short video about the adventure:

In the second part of this post make a small analysis of the deformations of the cable used by Philippe Petit and his cohorts as well as physical concepts that are used in their acrobatic tightrope walkers.