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The Economic Times
The Economic Times
National
Team Global

In 2013, Robert Downey Jr. commissioned Nicolò Bini to create a Malibu Binishell with thin-shell concrete; nine years later, the 6,500-sq-ft home was completed

Most celebrity homes take a year or two to complete. Robert Downey Jr.’s didn’t. It took nine years, an Italian father-and-son duo, and a process of blowing up concrete like a balloon. This same style of construction was studied in a 2022 conference paper from Politecnico di Milano, Domes of Air and Concrete: Aging and Durability, calling it one of the most unusual chapters in modern concrete design.

A house built like a balloon

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