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The exhibition Dante Bini. Out of the Box, which can be visited in the spaces of the ADI Design Museum in Milan, Italy, from May 1 to June 15, is a tribute to the lateral thinking of visionary designer Dante Bini, one of the most eccentric and radical figures in the design culture of the second half of the 20th century.
Animated by a volcanic mind and an indomitable character, Bini has crossed the boundaries between architecture, engineering and industrial design with independence and rigor, devising solutions capable of responding to social, technological and ecological urgencies.
Born April 22, 1932, in Castelfranco Emilia, in the province of Modena, and a graduate in architecture from the University of Florence, Bini has worked in Japan, Australia, where he and his family lived for six years, and the United States, where he still lives with his wife Adria, as well as in the former Soviet Union. An architect, inventor and builder, Bini calls himself “a pioneer in automated building construction systems achievable using applied physics and robotics”.
His best-known invention is undoubtedly the Binishell system, which, developed in the 1960s, involves the use of a dynamic pneumatic formwork to build reinforced concrete domes up to 36/40 meters in diameter. Among the more than 1,500 Binishell domes built worldwide, the most famous remains the villa built by Bini in 1970 for Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni and actress Monica Vitti in Costa Paradiso, Sardinia, better known as La Cupola.
In fact, over the course of a career spanning more than 60 years, the Emilian architect has carried out so many academic and professional collaborations internationally, among numerous fields of interest, from studies on new systems and materials in construction to space research on lunar habitats, passing through industrial design, and also engaging in automated urban infrastructure projects, such as Kyoto K21 and Tower City.
Curated by Alessandro Colombo and Paola Garbuglio, the exhibition at the ADI Design Museum in Milan reflects Bini's interdisciplinary approach by proposing a thematic reading of his work and thought, eschewing a chronological narrative in favor of a centric conceptual structure that reflects the variety of his areas of research. The figure of the architect is explored thanks to the collective study and rediscovery work conducted by the scientific committee – composed of Alberto Bologna, Carlo Dusi, Will Mac Lean, Alberto Pugnale, Giulia Ricci – in dialogue with the Archivio del Moderno in Mendrisio, which will welcome the Bini fund for future research activities.
