Vienna Scientists Create the Inflatable Concrete Dome

A completely new way of building concrete structures has been developed: Scientists at the Vienna University of Technology bend concrete with an air cushion, making complicated timber structures obsolete. This new construction method does not require any timber structures at all: a flat concrete slab hardens on the ground, and then an air cushion below the plate is inflated, bending the concrete and quickly forming a sustainable shell. Even large event halls could be built this way. In Vienna, a first experimental structure has now been built using the new method.