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Medal Winner 2000

Inflatable Bubble Stabilizer

Part 2 Project 2000
Takuya Onishi
Architectural Association London | UK
19 November 1999 in Turkey. Disaster came in the early evening again, 7.2 on the Richter scale, hitting the edge of the first earthquake.
At that time, my project had been launched from making a prototype of a suitcase-size folding inflatable structure in London. Existing rescue airlift bag can support 22 tons.

The critical points of post-disaster situations are always the buildings with minor damage. Damage of structure may be very little, but no one can live in it. Pulling down these buildings costs a lot and takes much effort. So hundreds of damaged buildings remain in the earthquake site for a long period as empty useless boxes. "We want to stay at home...." the words stick in my brain.

The project: Inflatable Bubble Stabilizer
Installing an inflatable stabilizer into minor damaged buildings and enabling people to go back home. Casting concrete on the airbags and damaged original structure; then after removing the airbags, inhabitable hollow spaces remain in the buildings.

56% of local people could go back home with the help of this project, but I could not transfer the remaining 44% of them. Don't be disappointed. We will find more strategy in the near future, I hope.




We would wish to convince you of the intelligence of this project.

It is a scheme for the impossible task of rehousing those that have been displaced by the major earthquake in Turkey.

The rigorous exploration of the technique of an adaptable inflatable structure results in a proposal that provides a completely fresh solution to the problem.

The beauty of the design rests in the author’s control of innovation, tempered by research into the Patent Library. It is a project that works within the provocations of the brief and produces a result.

The architecture as a result solves the practical problems of relocation, and spatially reinforces a past tradition of community by making new connecting spaces within the partially collapsed demi-modernist housing blocks.

A leap in the right direction.

2000
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