AIRchitecture: Flying classrooms of the future

If you’ve ever sat in a classroom, bored silly, and wished you could just fly away, here’s the solution, well, sort of. The new concept from Geotectura and Malka - a flying structure for Delft University’s Architecture Faculty - melds spacecraft with studio space to create AIRchitecture, a dynamic, real-world learning environment with a minimal carbon footprint.

The zeppelin-like workspaces are designed to travel between the on-site campus building - a social infrastructure housing the library, offices, lecture halls, auditorium and restaurant - an off-site ‘floating building’ they would attach ‘plug and play’ style to other campuses and structures around the city and even the world.

The flying studio spaces are designed to enhance students’ opportunities for collaboration, engender teamwork, and provide a dynamic learning environment where they can put sustainability and architecture principles into practice. Geotectura believes the idea will also foster greater passion for architecture, creativity, innovation and responsibility.

They see AIRchitecture as ‘more than a building - a way of life', of living the sustainable ideology.

Designed for minimal environmental impact AIRchitecture would be constructed from carbon and aluminum; photovoltaic cells would be embedded within the skin of the balloon and a non-flammable material such as helium used to fill it.

Now, back to daydreaming during lectures... here's some clever Photoshop work from students illustrating how AIRchitecture could travel the world.

Via Geotectura via Inhabitat.

Karen Sprey