If when I say "inflatable" you immediately think of outdoor games full of children, you are not on the right track (If you think of the word "doll" there are even bigger problems). What if I told you “inflatable houses”?
The New York startup Automatic Construction he developed a construction technique that allows his workers to literally inflate houses, and then pump concrete into its air-filled walls. The company claims that homes built using this process can be inflated in less than 15 minutes, and completed in less than an hour at a fifth of the cost of traditional ones.
Automatic Construction, swollen houses… with pride
A bizarre technique, right? Well, to extreme evils, extreme remedies. For a world that will increasingly struggle against housing shortages, ideas are needed. In 2030, the United Nations provides that we will have to build 96.000 affordable homes a day to house the 3 billion people who will need a roof over their heads.
Everyone is experimenting with solutions: 3D printed houses, modular buildings, even construction drones. This construction technique is only the latest in chronological order. It is patent pending, and it's called IFFF (Inflatable Flexible Factory Formwork). “Our solution is compact and inflates on site,” he says Alex Bell, CEO of the company.
How is an "inflatable" house born?
It all starts with a truck that transports and delivers the “houses” still rolled up, like deflated beach mats. The structures, made in PVC, they are then unrolled and inflated with air compressors. To be precise, two structures are inflated, like a matryoshka doll: the internal part, which serves to support the system, and the external, hollow part, which will be filled with concrete as the air is removed from the other side. End.
Two days to harden the material, then the PVC structure that "holds" everything is deflated again and stored for other constructions. The part filled with concrete, on the other hand, is not removed, acting as an insulating sheath. Theoretically, the outside can normally be plastered, and therefore show no difference with conventionally built houses.
Also in theory, the PVC components of these houses can also be recycled.
The first "on road" tests
Automatic Construction has already built prototypes up to 20 square meters, and is now testing a more convincing size, 60 square meters. Costs? $ 100 to $ 300 per square meter, surprisingly low. Of course, for that price there is only a basic structure with four walls and a roof. No plasterboard, no coatings, fixtures, etc. On balance it is still a significant component of the final cost of houses, which can be up to 80% cheaper.
Ah! I forgot. If you shiver at the idea of living in a concrete padded dinghy, know that these PVC walls are penis of reinforcing fibers (kayaks can be built on them) 10 centimeters thick.
Children are allowed, but there is nothing to skip.
