“I have to tell you Mario: if you’ve never done it, take a piece of granite, let it split and there you can smell the scent of space and time”. Here is one of the most intense passages of the long conversation between two Italian architects distant in terms of generation, but united by the bond withEmilia Romagna.
One is Mario Cucinellathe other is Dante Bini: they meet on the hills of Arezzo for a passionate conversation, in which the designer of the next Italian Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka takes on the unprecedented role of interviewer. Together with the opera singer Raina KabaivanskaBini was chosen for the debut edition of Emilia-Romagna Culture Award: Tuesday 20 February 2024 they will be the president of the Region, Stefano Bonacciniand the councilor for culture and landscape, Mauro Felicorito assign to the designer of Modena origins, born in 1932the new recognition.
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It is attributed to him for “the extraordinary results achieved in architectural research and in the development of innovative construction techniques”. The reference is, clearly, to the over one hundred patents on construction site automation resulting from the research of Bini, known internationally above all for having developed, in the mid-1960s, the construction technique known as Binishell.
Building with air: the story of the architect Dante Bini
It is a system, adopted in hundreds of buildings around the world and which has become the distinctive feature of its production, which allows the construction of domed structures in thin reinforced concrete through the combined use of metal reinforcement and pneumatic formwork to be inflated.
Right in his hometown, Castelfranco Emilia, Bini managed – literally – to raise the first dome built with this method: a result obtained following a series of studies on the static efficiency of vaulted structures. But it’s in the United States that, shortly after the first experiences in the Modena area, the Binishell began its global rise, achieving a significant following also driven by “infinite variations of shape” which allows you to obtain.
Since the 1970s, this North American country has become Bini’s second home, where he has chosen to live and study various areas of architectural design, including geodesic structures and prefabrication methods in wood and steel.
Of his career – profoundly international (significant activity in Australia) and itinerant – through the awarding of the prize, the Emilia-Romagna Region intends to emphasize the “Emilian pragmatism”considering it a complementary aspect of Bini’s success, alongside his visionary nature and drive towards experimentation.
Bini’s “Dome” for Antonioni and Vitti
With his enveloping architecture Dante Bini managed to “fascinate” even one of the most popular couples of twentieth-century Italian cinema. In fact, the story of the so-called is widely known Cupolathe director’s Sardinian summer residence Michelangelo Antonioni and the actress Monica Vitti.
However, neither the exceptional nature and architectural importance of this structure, nor the fact that it welcomed influential figures from the cultural scene, have saved the house from its fate of abandonment and decay, which has long been denounced by the press. Submitted since 2015 at the Declaration of Cultural Interestby the competent ministry, the property last July it was vandalized. An event brought to the national spotlight by the festival organizers Living the Holidaywho had identified one of the three poles of interest of their event in Sardinia (also including Bini’s work in the circuit).
Who knows whether regional recognition, once again attesting to the uniqueness of Bini and his production, might contribute to keeping the spotlight on his best-known Italian work as well, impacting the hoped-for rebirth.
Valentina Silvestrini
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2024-02-20 12:04:04
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