“At the entrance to Robert Downey Jr.’s Malibu, Calif., home, a pivot-hinged door opens onto a spacious foyer... At the height of their popularity in the late 1970s, Binishells popped up like soap bubbles across Australia, where Bini, who got the idea for the domes after a game of tennis under an inflatable roof, had been hired by the public works department of New South Wales to build schools.
“Binishell, a form originated in 1964 by Dante Bini. The now-90-year-old Italian industrial designer discovered that by topping a nylon-coated neoprene air bladder with wet steel-reinforced concrete, then slowly inflating it, he could make — in an hour or so, about the time it takes for the material to cure — a naturally aerodynamic and durable thin-shell Bungalow.”
Cocoonlike: “Call it biomimicry or call it borrowing from nature, but the beauty is that it works.” ~ NicolÃē Bini
“Downey’s Binishell was designed by the creator’s son, NicolÃē, a 55-year-old Beverly Hills-based architect who’s reimagining his father’s innovation. NicolÃē didn’t so much follow in the elder Bini’s footsteps as stumble into them while puzzling over fast, efficient solutions to the global housing crisis.
Entrance:
“Found themselves increasingly committed to ecologically focused solutions to social problems. (In 2019, Downey created the FootPrint Coalition, a venture fund that invests in sustainable-minded companies. They’ve used their land as a testing...
“Ground for technologies like solar-generated water systems and a pair of wind turbines to offset the building’s energy consumption.
“Home lacking interior walls, at least structural ones, the dome feels surprisingly cozy; where the plaster-finished gypsum room dividers don’t extend all the way to the curved ceiling, panes of soundproof glass have been added for privacy. From the kitchen, the Heart of the structure, a hallway leads past a space-themed arcade game into a bright living room with cork flooring.
“In Malibu, an Inflatable Bungalow for Robert Downey Jr...“It was a crucible of faith,” says the actor about his elaborate version of the typically humble Binishell.
Joyce Kim, photographer
“Kooboo rattan cane nest by the South African designer Porky Hefer hangs next to a sofa...”
Living room :
“My intention wasn’t to propagate his work,” he says. “It was to figure out a better way of building.” ~ NicolÃē Bini
Nick Haramis, American journalist, New York Times article
Oceanair... Overlooks Zuma Beach
Photo credits: Joyce Kim
“Quixotic project”
“Robert Clydesdale, suggested they consider NicolÃē, who had been working to update his father’s Binishells — and bring them up to code...A Reduced-carbon-footprint, energy-efficient home of tomorrow.” ~ Joe Nahem source "Stocked candy bar, leads to a Self-contained Screening room accessible through a folding garage-type door.”
“Thin-shell home is at once an aerodynamic oddity and, perhaps, a harbinger of environmentally conscious architecture...'Toxic Mickey' (2017), a bronze fountain sculpture by the American artist Bill Barminski that depicts a man chest-deep in a punctured oil drum, wearing a gas mask in the shape of Walt Disney’s beloved mouse.”
Undulating 6,500-square-foot white concrete domed structure that could either be prehistoric or from the distant future. Downey, 57, calls it the Clubhouse.
“Very intimidating.” ~ Joe Nahem, Interior designer of the New York-based firm Fox-Nahem
Whimsy :)
“eXpressive signifier of the Downeys’ whimsy...opens dramatically into an eXpansive foyer with a saltwater aquarium. A wavy screen made of fiberglass beads in gray, brown and neon yellow separates a breakfast nook from the dining room; nearby, a jokey display case contains a pair of fake-marshmallow-tipped sticks with instructions to “break glass in case of fire.”
“Yet the challenge of creating such an architectural oddity — a Buckminster Fuller folly by way of Beverly Hills — was clearly part of the fun.”
Zuma Beach, Malibu, California
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