Material Experience Design | Yasuaki Kakehi Laboratory, The University of Tokyo

Yasuaki Kakehi Laboratory

Single-Stroke Structures


Designing Room-Scaled Pneumatic Objects with a Single-Stroke Inflatable Tube


Takahiro Hasegawa and Yasuaki Kakehi

We now live in the age of mobility. With the development of urban transport and overpopulation in the cities, we are constantly surrounded by billions of people. This project explores the possibility of improving the livability in crowded cities with a portable partition to create your own space. We use Single Stroke Structures(SSSs), a digital fabrication system that creates architecture-scaled pneumatic objects by inflating one thin plastic poly tube. By partially bonding the tube with heat and pressure in multiple positions and changing the space between the bonds, we can control the inflated tube’s curvature and convert the single stroke into various shapes. The one-stroke structure makes it possible for users to inflate it when necessary and deflate it to carry it around in a compact roll.