Alexis Rochas and his students at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles have developed two inflatable prototypes that consider the idea of a malleable home that can be deflated and fit into a suitcase, then travel to a new location with its owner.

Aeromads

The Aeromads prototype can be flipped around to fit the space it’s resting on. Inflated seating areas are built in. Once filled with air, the 60-foot-long covered pavilion can be customized to fit a specific purpose: a temporary emergency housing or “a museum or art pavilion that pops up for a day,” says Rochas. The model uses air pressure as a building material to exist as its own, independent structure, and is unplugged and detached from electrical outlets.

The exterior is sheathed in nylon rib-coated with aluminized Mylar to reflect light and provide thermal insulation. For energy needs, the Aeromads has embedded photovoltaic, flexible batteries and solar water heating.

FAB Inflatable Pavilion

The other structure, the FAB Inflatable Pavilion, was designed by Rochas last year as an art exhibition space.

In three minutes, pumped-in air transforms that 18-inch cube into a pavilion. “These structures are not meant to be some place forever but for a short-time experience,” precises Rochas.

Scaled-down version of the prototypes are on exhibit at the Southern California Home & Garden Show, which opens today at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Via archinect LA Times and archnewsnow.

More inflatable space anyone?

CICCIO – Curiously Inflatable Computer Controlled Interactive Object

paraSITE shelters; Pneumatic Parliament; Fabulous Floating Inflatable Villa; Kiss the Frog; Instant dwelling; CICCIO (Curiously Inflatable Computer Controlled Interactive Object); Inflatable canopy; Web House project; The Emancipator Bubble.