The fundamental condition for the system’s success is cable tension. To achieve good resistance to the bending resulting from the force of wind on the glass and which transmits to the cable construction, we must allow the existence of great forces of tension. Because these forces transmit to the building’s walls, the building must be able to bear them. therefore, the building must be planned in advance to bear the cables’ stress load. This is not a simple achievement: the smaller the amount of bending we wish to allow, the tighter the tension must be.
It’s easy to understand the difficulty, therefore, in planning a building able to bear the tension of the cables that in fact constitute the structure for the glass curtain wall. This led to examining the possibility of allowing irregular bending in the wall, because the cables do not carry bending moments that may cause a structural fracture. Nonetheless, large bending may cause a fracture in the glass and/or cause a sense of discomfort among those behind the cable wall.