Cupole d’aria e cemento: ricercando l’innovazione.

In the 1950s and 60s, research into thin-shell concrete structures attained results perhaps still unsurpassed today. Structural, technological and constructional innovation was united with research in the typological and expressive fields, making it possible to experiment with a radical redefinition of ways of living and working. Through the rationality of the construction process, this utopian approach with an extremely pragmatic character sought to attain forms of economy and optimisation in the use of materials to develop new solutions. Working in this field, Dante Bini, an architect and entrepreneur, patented an innovative process for building reinforced concrete domes using pneumatic formwork. In just over 10 years, more than 1,500 domes were built using the Binishell system in many parts of the world, creating housing, sports centres and schools, tourist, commercial and industrial developments. The initial phases of the research made by Bini at San Cesario between 1965 and 1967, were protected by the registration of patents of industrial invention. Today this complex risks demolition. Bringing to the attention of the local community, and more generally the scientific community, architectural artefacts embodying the early stages of his research conducted with very limited resources and a great deal of intuition, could be a first step towards developing strategies for preserving and reusing them.