Comments on: Inflatable Diamond Grid Eco-Pavilion by Various Architects

By: Jim Dodson

Jim Dodson — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:29:10 +0000

Thanks again to Inhabitat for featuring our design.

A quick comment to Gary. Actually, manufacturing the tubes is not a problem. Our collaborator and manufacturer Tectoniks have custom software that cut all the parts from a 3D model. Their software also simulates the pressure on the material ensuring practically \’wrinkle-free\’ seams and welds. We have made a full scale mock-up of piece of a similar structure previously. The buildings that Tectoniks regularly produce are larger than this pavilion and they see no problem in manufacturing our design as is. Have a look at their website for examples – http://www.tectoniks.com/

As this structure will erected 2-3 days at a time for a 6 month travel season you can extend the 5 year lifespan by 3 or 4 times when it comes to sun exposure. We were quoted more than a 5 year lifespan on the Ferrari textiles in question. You are correct to question the Texyloop process, but I doubt you can find another material for a temporary pavilion that is comparibly recyclable, or achieves a similarly low packing volume and weight. For a mobile pavilion we believe that we have made the correct choice.

Jim Dodson, Various Architects

By: Gary

Gary — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:29:18 +0000

Nice rendering, and a beautiful design, but actually building that as an inflatable structure will be monumentally difficult. I know of only one way to achieve flat planes with inflated fabric and it would involve hugely laborious
and painstaking fabrication by hand; CNC processes won’t help much, same for all those tube nodes; they can be CNC-cut but the RF or hot-air welding will be hyper-critical and must be done by hand demanding incredible
operator discretion while moving tons of heavy, hard to handle fabric. The Texyloop recycling process is interesting, but their website is vague on the chemistry involved and that would need to be clarified before we can be sure that recycling polyester-reinforced PVC is anything approaching sustainable. The initial manufacture of the PVC fabric is still very icky (to use a technical term) and PVC has a very short lifespan; on the order of only 5 years when exposed to sunlight, we should be trending away from its use. I’m not trying to be a downer, but I designed and helped to build one of the largest PVC structures in the world and I am intimately familiar with the materials and processes. I’m not proud of having facilitated that building and am eager to develop alternatives. Inflatability remains very interesting, but we need to be responsible in our material choices.

Gary Paudler

By: mbfranklin

mbfranklin — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:35:52 +0000

This is like a breath of fresh air!

So much better than the normal hangar type shapes that are used for inflatable buildings.