Walter Bird and the first pneumatic constructions

Abstract

Based on his continuous and exhaustive research, Walter Bird developed, from 1948 to 1960, the first pneumatic constructions in the history of architecture: the Radome, an instant warehouse, a cover for swimming pools, the Pentadome, and the itinerant pavilion for the United States Atomic Energy Commission for Peace (AEC). The work done by Walter Bird on these constructions lays the foundations and constructive guidelines for inflatable architecture. He works with single and double membrane envelopes; permanent and mobile constructions; commercial, private, and public uses; with various plastic materials, and with both simple and sophisticated patterns; all of which allows designing all kinds of spaces, even the complex and spatially rich ones. All of the above mentioned structures are designed under the umbrella of a very high theoretical physical knowledge; they are executed with the necessary means, and with a team of trained technicians; and all of them are erected correctly anchored to the ground in order to be safe and feasible. All in all, they prove that pneumatic architecture and technology are intrinsically linked. Ever since these five constructions were erected, pneumatic technology is implemented as a way to build architectural structures. Pneumatic architecture became a feasible possible alternative to traditional architecture, which called the attention of 1960s young architects who immediately began to be interested in working with it.