The Brilliant Evolution of Inflatable Buildings
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
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Inflatable Architecture has enabled the imaginations of environmental dreamers of all types. From figures like Buckminster Fuller to Ant Farm, inflatables promise to liberate people from the harsh conditions of nature or the tyranny of architecture. Originally developed by the US Military for radar enclosures on the arctic, inflatables were picked up by NASA before their secrets were bestowed upon the public who deployed them to solve all sorts of problems, from enclosing pools to stadiums. Today - 70 years later - and people are still dreaming of new uses for inflatables. However, there are other, more covert uses that one might not even know were inflatable, like their application at the Kaplan Institute at IIT by the architect John Ronan. Here the facade is an inflatable ETFE membrane that filters light while providing ample insulation. This video traces this evolution from military and NASA technology, all the way to buildings like the facade on the Kaplan Institute.
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Architecture with Stewart is a UA-cam journey exploring architecture’s deep and enduring stories in all their bewildering glory. Weekly videos and occasional live events breakdown a wide range of topics related to the built environment in order to increase their general understanding and advocate their importance in shaping the world we inhabit.
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Stewart Hicks is an architectural design educator that leads studios and lecture courses as an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also serves as an Associate Dean in the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts and is the co-founder of the practice Design With Company. His work has earned awards such as the Architecture Record Design Vanguard Award or the Young Architect’s Forum Award and has been featured in exhibitions such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Design Miami, as well as at the V&A Museum and Tate Modern in London. His writings can be found in the co-authored book Misguided Tactics for Propriety Calibration, published with the Graham Foundation, as well as essays in MONU magazine, the AIA Journal Manifest, Log, bracket, and the guest-edited issue of MAS Context on the topic of character architecture.
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University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture: arch.uic.edu/
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The architecture field is in desperate need for more channels like this. We really need to get better at sharing and communicating ideas and techniques to the public but also each other. We're barely building on each other's knowledge any more, every office is like a closed off bubble. Great job with the channel
Sweden’s architecture is an absolute mess, for some reason our government loves building concrete cubes á la USSR😅
Blue Ocean Strategy 🤩
@@DaNuff1337 No our construction companies love it.
B1M is a good one
Closed off bubbles is the bread and butter of capitalism and competition. If not for a capitalistic system we would be sharing patents and building on them in many different ways. Collaboration is always faster than independent innovative competition. But the only thing the world sees is money, not long term societal benefit.
We could have solved climate change by now.
4:26 inspiring how walter bird died at 14 and left a mark on architecture while aging three times as fast as a normal human
Good, i'm not the only one wondering. :D
lmfao, i think it was a mistake
@@toyotagaz obviously
These were used in OEF(Afghanistan war) as field hospitals and troop dwelling. The downside was that they get very hot as is, but that was solved by applying spray foam insulation on the outside. A structure that could house hundreds of troops could be raised in as little as three days and would last for years withstanding dust storms. Truly fascinating technology.
Wow glad I read this because here I was thinking damn now people can pop buildings instead of burning them. After reading this made me realize how durable they are I mean to stand and not fall in a dust storm is a feat of its own.
I haven't watched the full video, but Ima leave this comment anyway, if NASA got the same level of budgeting the military got, we would be living in a sci-fi dreamscape right now. The way those researchers solve any problem they put their minds to with the crumbs of funding they get is astonishing.
The military has invented or contributed towards a lot of inventions too. Off the top of my head: rockets, satellites, GPS, computers/computer networking, nuclear energy, autonomous vehicles, the Interstate Highway System, a ton of airplane-related things.
Sorry to burst your bubble but a NASA shares the budget within contracts with the military, and most of the work NASA does is in cooperation with the military.
@@PickAPocky that’s why it took nasa 20 years to build a 10 billion dollar telescope, but Lockheed Martin burned through almost 2 trillion in that same time for the f35, right?
@@Rampant16 also keeping the rest of the world in terror and poverty to maintain the imperialist hegemony. that ones a side note though. Besides, it's worth every penny if youre a billionaire. Nothing like cheap labor in a dominated country on the other side of the world.
@@Rampant16 Most of that was through DARPA which isn't always funded a well as the rest of the military.
NASA developed inflate-able module technology for the space station "in-house", but then cancelled that particular program during budget contractions, and the ISS was designed a number of times in development, deleting the inflatable. A man named Bigelowe bought the patents and kept developing the idea into a series of very successful space habitat modules that were proved successfully on-orbit for years. The circle was complete when NASA added an experimental Bigelowe module called BEAM to the international space station a few years ago, and the tech shows promise for future space station construction as well as long-duration lunar and Mars missions, packing more useable volume into smaller packages... but the slow pace of this acceptance left Bigelowe without a market, and his company folded a year or two ago. You can innovate a lot, but without a market to accept and use the innovation, your stuff can die on the vine.
America sucks
Fascinating as always. I was expecting the WWII inflatable anecdote to be the inflatable tanks and barracks used to exaggerate the apparent size of armies from above (that was actually used a bit in WWI too), but I didn't know about the radar dome application so that's a fun new fact.
One thing I will say is that it would be helpful if you had captions to tell which buildings and cities are being shown with the stock footage. For example, the building at 7:19 is absolutely gorgeous and I would like to know more about it and potentially visit it, but I don't know where it is or what it's called without having to do some digging first. Having that name up front would be very helpful.
@needamuffin, it's called La Grande Arche, it was in The Bourne Identity.
The materials used in inflatables are not necessarily Teflon. According to Wikipedia, the Echo I balloon satellite was made from metalized Mylar. Mylar is brand name for polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE). Teflon is a brand name for polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).
Most "Mylar" balloons are actually made from metalized nylon.
Remember comments are good for "the algorithm" even if the comment is pointing out an error which are inconsequential to the subject of the video.
I'm a chemist and I find it hard to keep track of all the various types of plastics. I'm planning on making a radio controlled dirigible and I've learned aluminumized nylon appears to be a common material for making lighter than air balloon envelopes.
Thanks for another interesting and entertaining video.
He also isn’t mentioning that these materials are made with forever chemicals. Which are the worst thing possible for us and the environment. So don’t mind me if I’m not super stoked for more forever chemicals lol
Mylar is amazing at holding air, or even helium. A Mylar helium balloon can last for months.
@@M33f3r Is it the Mylar or the metal coating which is good at holding helium. Most "mylar balloons" are actually metalized nylon. You are right about these metalized plastic films being great holding gasses. Without the metal, they're not as great.
I was about to ask what is the function of the metallic coating, thanks for the comments
@@ddegn I didn’t know. Just used to one someone who worked with balloons for a living.
Thank you for making this channel your passion project and creating all this great content throughout the time. I wish had you as a professor when I was at arch school. Now on the subject of inflatable architecture, there's enough material to make part 2, I would love to dig more into die spaces with membranes + community building
It’s early so I’ll leave a comment. I have nothing to do with architecture whatsoever, but your videos offer a lens into this art to someone like me, always feel intrigued and inspired by your content, thanks Prof.!
No mention of the recursive nature of NASA's influence?
The Bigelow Aerospace Excursion Module (BEAM) was attached to the ISS in 2016
It may be more pantry or storeroom than architecture but it definitely shows how tough an inflatable structure can be.
What is the time span "1912-1926" refering to at 4:26 regarding Walter Bird?
I was also confused so I did a little digging: He was born in 1912 and died in 2006. Seems to be a typo!
What do you want ETFE? What does the ETFE say? What does it like? ... An arch? It's not a brick. A bubble or pillow? Is that all it can be?
In 1974, while I was attending Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio, I was pursuing my BFA in sculpture. In one of my sculpture classes we were assigned to design our own inflatable, (sculpture). It could be any size, as long it was at least as large as 4 foot square. We used a thin, but durable clear plastic material that could be (welded) together with a basic electric clothing iron. I created a 7 X 7 foot square cube room. I used a 10 inch diameter electric fan, to inflate it and there was a simple flap door, just large enough for me & some friends, to crawl inside. I could easily seal the edges instantly with clear tape, before it lost all its air. Maybe not the most original,.... but it seemed to have the "wow factor" for its size. Set up in my tiny apartment, it took up a whole room. In the student gallery, it became an iconic "Pop Art" form.
I currently work as an inflatable structure designer. I think that this technology is incredbly underutilised and the opportunities are endless. The only problem is letting people know that this an option! Thats why videos like this are awesome.
Well dang, birdair actually has something in my hometown and I never knew, I always thought it was frosted glass! I've literally been in that Jobsite as they built it but had no clue.
There was an article in a science mag I read in the 90s about AquaTecture by a prof out of Chicago where they'd use water/liquids instead of air and in some cases a vacuum and circulation system to raise massive structures. I haven't seen it since and have been curious about it if you've run across it. You could do fun things with freezing to make harder structurers and for radiation shielding, using the skin of the building as a machine like for sewage processing, etc.
Happy to see you on Nebula! Can't wait to see what's in store for the channel.
You think we would have bouncy castles today if a private company like SpaceX made these inventions back then instead of NASA?
My question is why we always want rectangular shapes the nature provided so many structures which are extremely material saving and efficient
I lived in the 70's in a Chicago-area suburb called Hanover Park, with the local public swimming pool about 100 yards away from my back door. It was convenient to basically walk from my backyard to the pool in about a hundred steps. The Park District decided one year to go big on inflatable tech for a fieldhouse/tennis court complex as well as to englobe the pool. Both were heated by big gas-fed heaters and the first two winters that pool was gloriously tropical. These gigantic arctic white blisters were locally nicknamed "The Warts" for a while. After a short acclimatization period, to get over the continuous noise of the blowers and the use of airlocks for entry/egress, people enjoyed them quite a lot.
But maintenance of the blowers and heaters and rising energy costs for the constant pressure fans began to eat into the parks' budget. In trying to cut costs, they changed the gas supply to the heaters for the pool, without modifying the ignition system, and every time they ignited for a heating cycle, it made a terrifying explosive BOOM sound. Roughly once an hour. Right behind my home. Suddenly the pool was less convenient.... At the end of that season, the district decided to remove the pool bubble, but left the fieldhouse/tennis complex covered. It was braced inside with hemispherical ribs of steel and cables, in a tensegrity-type construction to supplement the blowers, where the air only did half the structural work. It's still in good shape decades later.
Bro I thought this was just a joke from impractical jokers!
What is that magnificent building at 7:18?
Grande Arche de la Defense, its located in Paris
Early but I can tell this is going to be good
My parents didn't like air conditioning, and I used to use a big ole box fan and old encyclopedia sets to secure a very large queen bed sheets to make what I called a moon tent. I'd read and play and sleep in that thing. It was beautiful.
I knew I was going to get clickbated but God damn. Imagine making a claim it's an inflatable building when it LITERALLY THE ONLY THING INFLATED ARE WALL COVERS.
This isn't interesting at all. The entire building is literal glass and steel get the fuck out of here.
To add: there's also the concept of "tensairity" which uses the inflatable elements as structural elements. As an idea it seems to be in its infancy, but is worth mentioning en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensairity
Check out this inflatable building... Well, actually it's a normall steel frame building. But it has inflatable windows!!! That counts as an inflatable building right?????
I think this shows how important it is to keep NASA and scientific research in general properly funded. I assume companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin will always try to keep as many of their inventions secret.
I never thought that I had an interest in architecture, but these videos really help introduce me to a completely new perspective on the way I see the cities I live in. Thanks!
1:03 I was just wondering what those things are on your night stands, they're power houses!
The biggest problem with inflatable buildings is that any a-hole with a needle can ruin them.
Ask me how I know and how much my family had to pay for a bouncy castle replacement on my 7th b-day because I had the bright idea to invite Stefan who never liked me and was always mean to me.
What's about air circulation and heat and oxygen control inside inflatable structures? How pumps could hold the building while door open? What Math?
The guys on impractical jokers got laughed at when they pitched inflatable buildings. Looks like they're ahead of their time. smh
This is gold, especially after I just watched the episode about collapsible buildings from impractical jokers
1:58 looking at the pictures of the inside, you can clearly see that the Kaplan Institute is not an inflatable building in the real sense. It has a conventional 1st floor and a steal beam structure to support it and the 2nd floor.
The inflatable part is only the walls/windows in the 2nd floor.
Using only inflatable elements, it is just a building with a clever twist.
"Steal" beam structure" ? Who stole them?
@@johnsmith7676 omg you are so funny. I am laughing so hard. I can barely breathe. Seriously, stop. You are too much. I can not take it anymore. Stop being hilarious. You are killing me. Help. Everybody: this man is too funny for the world. Do not listen to him. He is so funny, you will not be able to stop laughing. I mean, look at me. I read his comment and now I am sweating. I need water, please give me water, or I will die. I have never laughed so hard in my life. I hope I will be able to stop laughing one day. I would like to see my family again. But right now, the chances to stop laughing are slim. I have little hope. Please tell my wife I love her.
damn walter bird looks very old for a 14 year old. 9:00 back in the good ol days when hippies loved plastic. save the trees burn the dinos moment
Dang brand deals!!!!, I thought you were going to say you were working on your Nollie Tre flip
Hey Stewart, I’m an architecture student at ACC in Austin texas, and I’m John. I’ve found your videos along with so many other UA-cam people to be so very helpful. I thank you for all the inspiration you have passed along, because it’s people like you who’ve kept my dreams going. Thanks man, I’m glad you love making the videos because I love watching them!!!! 😊
this channel is bomb!!!......my subscription to this channel isn't a waste
In the 80's when I was in Elementary School, there used to be a traveling inflatable planetarium. Looking through Google it appears it still travels to schools. I thought it was the coolest thing ever at that age.
That thumbnail was awesome
Thank you!
I’ve never lived near a city so I don’t quite understand it, do block parties carry a negative connotation or no?
I want to put small holes in all of these by shooting tiny pins into them from several kilometers away
10:56 that bubble looks like it's only good for catching covid
Inflatable tents offer the advantage of being lightweight and able to be packed in a small space while they are transported, making them attractive for first generation space colonies.
4:24 1912-1929 please tell me that's when he was at Cornell or something.
You might be interested in the UK's National Space Centre, in Leicester. The "rocket house" is a tower with semi-transparent walls made of inflated pillows of ETFE. Looks crazy and can be seen for miles.
Walter Bird died in 2006. In the video it says 1926.
So are these things safe from one really good hurricane season?
The impractical jokers would be proud
DuPont?...the name rings a bell, let me Google that....
your a great teacher even for me , a high school drop out...
The answer to all your questions, collapsible
PLEASE look into the monolithic dome institute.
Ive noticed that when you enter the frame in a silly way you spend about two or three seconds trying not to laugh 😂
"where people engage in critical dialog" hahhahahahahaha
i like how nature friendly all this tons of plastik is
the date involving walter bird does not match
My government here in Tasmania Australia has put a huge amount of regulations and red tape to stop Owner Builders, thus putting the creation of buildings out of the hands of the People and profits into the hands of their builder mates.
Walter Bird aged badly and didn't live very long. just before last Christmas in a tiny city in the north of our state, Six School children were killed when an inflatable play structure (jumping castle here in Australia) was blown into the air, one of the saddest Christmases ever in the state.
How is this not sponsored by helix sleep
"Style is a trap." -Renzo Piano
9:00 they were used to smoke weed in, dont dance aroud it
The ideas you present are so so appreciated. I've been interested into inflatable robots and seeing the scaled up versions of architecture is inspiring. Some of the projects you showed made me think of the book anarchism and architecture
Really? A gimmick? No kidding.
Interesting description on how technology directs new developments in architecture.
11:05 our Biology teachers keep hammering hone the point that the term "semi-permeable membrane" makes no sense, since the membrane is either permeable or it isn't. In the biological sense "selectively permeable membrane" is the more correct term, since there is a selection of things that can permeate through.
A person sized door is semi-permeable in that it could fit a person, but not something huge like a car. It's not selectively permeable though because other stuff can go through it too, like a cat or a fire. Semi-permeable membranes are the same way. They might block huge molecules like glucose, but any smaller molecule like water, ions, CO2, etc has free reign with no filter. There are selectively permeable things though. Like a sodium-potassium pump.
I love the look actually, but isn't fluorinated plastics a real environmental concern?
I think so ;)
I need a bubble structure
There's another interesting ETFE building in the Centre Flon in Lausanne, Switzerland. It's inflated facade is divided into a triangular grid, and looks pretty sharp.
Look up Dante Bini. He uses inflatables as formwork for concrete structures. There are some amazing structures possible by it.
I love the bubbles
Hey thats my college
Reminds me of the ZANNAZONE. Anybody remember that ? From around 1970 in Los Angeles. Weird rooms of color and effects all in an inflatable building. Or did I just dream it?
Well done! Well done!
I've watched as many of your videos and this is my favorite because it exposed me to a new-to-me technology-with a great history. I have worked around composites for the last 10 years and had never heard of a PTFE + fiberglass.
The balls harden
I'm now dreaming of having an inflatable over an outdoor pool here in Winnipeg. Meanwhile we're about to get snow near the start of May...
I was hoping you'd mention the inflatable tennis court covers being the inspiration for bouncy castles. I'd be exactly likely those employees on those barrage balloons.
Rip Walter Bird, 14 yo. Gone too soon.
Just think of all the inflatables he could have designed if he lived past 14 years old!
when Impractical Jokers predicts the future.
good quality content... and congratulation for your achievements.
The only critique I have is the complete absence of insight in the actual material and the position that dupont put us in (environmentally and health wise) which would explain why teflon isn't just a joy ride we should all enjoy. Perhaps some research is required... I know there's a doco/movie about the whistle blower that started to unveil the teflon origin story... "dark waters" 2019 with mark ruffalo.
BRB building an inflatable dome over my house.
I love this!
The dreams of technologists are always silly and impractical. Really looks like supervillain stuff.
However I can totally see why you would want a totally enclosed city in the arctic or antarctic. I don't know that an inflatable will solve those problems though.
I like the giant inner tube they made for space though. It would be like living inside of a tire.
I also question the use of the inflatable cap around that building. It seems to me that a system that requires constant input of air is bound to fail at some point. I would like to confirm that it overall saves the building on energy costs. Is there no equally practical static system though?
It seems that the technology building that he visits early does provide a level of insulation from weather though. I've often wondered about how to enclose a part of the city during the winter, and seasonal inflatables over courtyards or squares makes more sense than opening glass over all outdoor spaces (my original vision)
You confused ETFE with PTFE
50+ year expected life in real world environments
I just wish it wasn't so overpriced
When your talking about the field of inflatable structures, it wouldn't be complete without mentioning Dometec International, or a similar bulk-storage-facility construction company. Their construction process starts by inflating a balloon with a diameter that can get over 100 meters, and then building inward using the balloon as a exterior frame. The end result might be a concrete structure, but inflatables are great for offering a quick exterior frame you can build off of.
amazing video, so inspiring, it is strange how bubbles can be still so inovative
Thank you!
This topic is super interesting. Amazing work Stewart. Thanks for making these videos!
inflattable architecture.... how/what about the air quality inside the inflated 'building'?... i wonder
i do not believe that picture depicts walter bird or that he was commissioned to build anything since your imagestamp puts him as only living to be 14 years of age. (1912 to 1926)
Inflatable walls in gun-filled Chicago. What could possibly go wrong....
Sk8 or DI3
Nice vintage pictures, but could you please try to improve your factual accuracy? Lot's of errors that basically encourage viewers to mute the BS and just watch the photos.
I really need your Email to ask some questions related about joint those bubble structures with ground, I am working on adaptive and reuse project and it can be helpful and useful at the same time for me. I will appreciate if you or someone answers me about.
4:24 Walter bird did of course not die 14 years after being born. He died in April of 2006.
(In the video it says 1912 - 1926)
YOU FORGOT those inflatable space dome planetarium shows, and those military inflatable structures that are impregnated with cement that harden after inflating then washing the structure with water then curing the structure to a permanent shape and more durability and permanency
I miss bouncy houses now! I know I'm an adult, but i love them!!
I'm assuming the energy cost of maintaining the inflatable is only marginally higher than typical HVAC for a similar sized building?
U r the man Stewart, your work and teaching through this content is 2nd to none, I put your work as not just inspirational but a true teaching aid, look forward to seeing more of your content in stride and maybe some possible projects you are associated with...Chicago is a great city.
"Walter Bird, 1912-1926"
Well he certainly *looks* older than 14 in the picture...