Pneumatic architecture (inflatable air) is advancing at giant steps providing new concepts and ways of use the air that goes further than the simple mattress inflatable.
Some time ago we were talking about different projects interesting about inflatable architecture and how; thanks to the new technologies, more resistant materials and a good design very interesting projects were appearing and even large buildings that raised the inflatable architecture as a trend unstoppable.
Today, the open fronts against the coronavirus pandemic (COVID19) are many, and among them, among the most remarkable, are the hospital needs before the new sick that appear every day.
A month ago, we saw how China created a hospital in 10 days based on prefabricated construction elements. Practically a constructive feat that can only happen in the world Asian, but there are other real alternatives.
The Spanish company Tecnodimension specialized in inflatable structures has just assembled an inflatable hospital in 3 days to serve daily between 70 and 80 citizens in Mexico .
The inflatable hospital structure recently mounted has been installed in the city of Pachuca (State of Hidalgo - Mexico) with an area of 1000 square meters. The medical center has primary care, secondary care, operating rooms, treatment rooms individual attention, etc., in total nine modules with three intensive care areas and medical offices.
This inflatable hospital unit has almost 3,000 meters of electrical wiring, 160 meters of installation of air conditioning ducts, has a removable internal steel structure for reinforcement and comply with all the regulations of a construction : highly resistant fabrics with polyvinyl chloride (PVC), fire retardant materials, ballast to withstand wind gusts of 100 kilometers per hour, and many other characteristics and technical conditions that are responsible for satisfying the team of architects and engineers of the company.
Operating rooms work with their own membrane, in the style from a bag, and the air is passed through a HEPA14 filter, guaranteeing the conditions of the traditional operating room that can be found in a building, with the ability to isolate the smallest particles. "Inside, in case of contamination, there is yet another filter that kills bacteria," he explained. Pallarès (company director) to the newspaper El País.
Remember that this type of inflatable structures have tangible advantages over traditional construction when we talk about constructive needs in short periods of time ; both for its speed in assembly, adaptation to the spaces, mobility option to be able to reuse it in other places or like the materials they use, which to a large extent measure are recyclable like PVC and we can transform them into other objects.
Another important issue is the unit cost that, although the typical precast structures are relatively inexpensive because they are assembled in the factory in a standardized way. The cost unit of this inflatable hospital mobile unit it only reaches €300 per square meter . An advantage substantial and that, of course, must be taken into account in emergency situations.
It's the perfect hospital that we all want to have, no, but Without a doubt, it can be a very successful and fast option when the hospital needs reach high levels and are extremely urgency. So that we can see how it is assembled and what are its features, the company has a demo video quite interesting.
If we look at architectural structures inflatables a little bigger and that change the look of public space forcefully (Other examples of use of public space with ideas intelligent).
The large inflatables designed by the studio of multidisciplinary architecture by Anish Kapoor and the architect Arata Isozaki break with the established. designed the world's first inflatable concert hall in Tohoku (Japan). A mobile structure, called Arca Nova that surprises both for its dimensions and the captivating design and impressive.
The inflatable architecture houses projects and ideas that really surprise, both for their design and for the way to renew concepts and objects.
