Concrete shells. Discovering Dante Bini

Felicori, Bianca [UCL]

The process of defining and reconstructing architectural history, but also history in general, is neither linear nor univocal, and of course hardly neutral. Dante Bini is one of those figures who, for various and not always easily identifiable reasons, have not been acknowledged in the landscape of 1960s and 1970s architecture. Dante Bini is the inventor of the Binishell, a technique patented in the early 1960s that uses air pressure to make spherically shaped reinforced concrete constructions. The 1960s were years of great ferment in the Italian political, social, and cultural debate; the world of architecture was going through a phase of revision aimed at renewing traditional building systems, moving towards technological innovation. The conference investigate the practice of Dante Bini, together with Bini himself and the architect and journalist Giulia Ricci. The conference was part of the public program made in collaboration with MAMbo Bologna and the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council program (12th edition, 2023).