NABATELE / Mission Inflatables
Mission Inflatables
The reflection "Mission Inflatables" writes about the invisible as a fleeting form through air, membrane, light, and equilibrium.
Floating home with eternal light: Hope, protection and love ...
NABATELE presented an extraordinary engineering challenge. Unlike a conventional aerostat, its shape was not defined by aerodynamic efficiency. The architectural and artistic form came first and the lighter-than-air engineering had to adapt to it.
The large tethered structure of this inflatable architecture had to generate sufficient buoyancy to become airborne while remaining controllable under the changing wind conditions of the Venetian Lagoon. At the heart of the system are custom-designed helium cells developed and manufactured by TAO. Rather than determining the external shape of the structure, the cells had to adapt precisely to the complex internal geometry of the artwork.
This was anything but conventional.
The available volume of this huge aerostat extended through fundamentally different spatial zones: the triangular roof geometry, the rigid central volume of the interior and the irregular, rock-like lower section. Each area imposed different geometric and structural constraints on the design of the helium cells.
TAO therefore translated the artistic geometry into a functional lighter-than-air system, developing the helium cell geometries, patterns, material configuration, attachments and integration required to distribute buoyancy throughout the structure of this floating building while preserving the intended architectural form.
The architecture defined the shape. Our TAO engineering made it fly.
The internal helium cells, the valves, the inflation/deflation system, the LPS and so much more technical details regarding buoancy have been individually designed, patterned, constructed, welded and assembled at TAO in Germany. Designed, engineered and handmade with dedication profession in Germany.
