"The Jetsons" meets James Bond and equals Sustainable Design. Architect Dante Bini, who received widespread attention in the 1960's era of Buckminster Fuller and Saarinen’s swooping TWA terminal, is making a comeback with his son Nicolo Bini. Together they have developed a protype for a home to be built in in Palm Springs this winter. It will be made up of Binishells, self-supporting concrete shells erected in hours using only air pressure.
This LEED platinum certified home featuring the latest eco-technologies and materials, will set the bar for low impact environmental construction.
Revisiting his father's work several years ago, Nicolo realized that, with some tinkering, the technology could be incredibly green. He supplies some impressive stats to back up that claim: because of the simplicity of their design and construction, the shells reduce energy use by up to 80%. Even better, they also reduce costs by half, and can be erected in a third of the time needed for traditional construction.
Binishell is an efficient, low-cost and low-carbon building technology that uses an inflatable membrane (basically a balloon) on a concrete foundation. It's covered with concrete, and then inflated. When the concrete is lifted to the required height, it is allowed to set. The membrane is then removed and is ready for use in the next structure. These shelters are strong and able to resist hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes and fires. They are easily deploy-able anywhere as they can be fabricated from locally available materials and require no factories for prefabrication and no heavy machinery for installation.
Binishells are ideally suited to eco-resorts. Their minimal carbon footprint, minimal visual impact, unique look and feel and the fact they can be made from locally available material makes them an ideal choice for eco-developments internationally.
The structure above can be built for a small fraction of the construction costs of conventional building. But, airports or maybe even space ship terminals could be in the future. Binishells can be used for a variety of large projects. Several 120-foot-diameter domes with multiple floors have already been built. They can therefore be used to build large public or private structures less expensively, faster, stronger and more ecologically than any other system. The rendering below shows three hour-glass- shaped Binishells joined by a tensile structure. The resulting structure would not only be contemporary and visually appealing, but also resistant to high winds, earthquakes and highly efficient in terms of resources and energy used in the life cycle of the building.
These unique buildings can be used for everything from high-end residential, to school gymnasiums, commercial buildings, or low cost housing and emergency shelters. Love it.
