In the 1990s, Nicolo Bini wrote his thesis at UC Berkeley on low-cost housing technologies. But the Italian-born, Australia-raised Bini went on to do high-end work for mansion-dwellers such as Usher and Cara Delevingne. Yet there is humility in all his work, whether it’s a seaside celebrity retreat or the disaster-area shelters he has proposed for Pakistan and Ukraine.

Both ends of the spectrum involve Binishells, a construction technology invented in the 1960s by his father, Dante Bini, who, with some 1,600 structures globally made from his design technologies, is the most prolific dome-builder in history.

Relaunching the brand in 2009, the younger Bini, now 55, debuted his own Binishell this year with a white, curvilinear, cave-like bungalow in Malibu, custom-built for Robert Downey Jr. and his wife. Looking like a sea creature that the Jetsons gifted to the Flintstones, the abode was constructed by inflating a gigantic neoprene bladder with air, then covering it in a thin coat of reinforced spray-on concrete.

The amorphous doorways, windows, and rooms might seem loony were it not for the serious philosophy behind them. “Whether it’s Newton or Einstein or Plato,” Bini told Artnet News, “in history when we come across these incredible challenges, we always look back to nature for answers.” Climate change, homelessness and disaster relief can be addressed by observing how plants and animals live and protect themselves. Crustaceans, eggs and nuts all use strong yet thin outer shells to protect what’s inside. Right angles are rare. Some of the most affordable and easily built structures are rounded, using the efficient load-bearing power of curves.

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