{"id":3913,"date":"2026-07-01T05:10:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T09:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\/maps\/?p=3913"},"modified":"2026-07-01T05:15:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T09:15:54","slug":"reconfigurable-inflatables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\/maps\/2026\/07\/01\/reconfigurable-inflatables\/","title":{"rendered":"Reconfigurable Inflatables"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\/maps\/news\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"2792\">News<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Inflatable Structures reimagined<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Pneumatic systems have long been used at various scales. Buckling &#8211; a failure mode involving the development of crumples &#8211; is usually avoided since it leads to undesirable and potentially rapid changes in form and function. Our work on the deliberate design for crumpling has now been published, opening up new design opportunities by demonstrating that crumpling can be experimentally and analytically predicted and used to facilitate the creation of new pneumatic morphologies. The demonstration prototypes span from the product (e.g. energy absorption) to the building pavilion scale, made in the GSD&#8217;s FabLab, in the facilities of the Bertoldi Group at Harvard SEAS, as well at Pneuhaus Studio in Rumford, RI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yang, Y., Youn, H. J., Kamp, L., Sachse, R., Li, Wenjie, Vidal, J., Feng, J., Bechthold, M., Bertoldi, K. 2026. \u201d Reconfigurable Inflatables Through Controlled Surface Crumpling.\u201d&nbsp;<em>Advanced Science.<\/em>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/advs.202600074\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/advs.202600074<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inflatable Structures reimagined Pneumatic systems have long been used at various scales. Buckling &#8211; a failure mode involving the development [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":3914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[40,13,22],"class_list":["post-3913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-adaptive-systems","tag-designscience","tag-science"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Reconfigurable Inflatables - MaP+S Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\/maps\/2026\/07\/01\/reconfigurable-inflatables\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reconfigurable Inflatables - MaP+S Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Inflatable Structures reimagined Pneumatic systems have long been used at various scales. Buckling &#8211; a failure mode involving the development [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\/maps\/2026\/07\/01\/reconfigurable-inflatables\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MaP+S Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-01T09:10:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-01T09:15:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\/maps\/files\/2026\/07\/prototype1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"708\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"308\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mbechthold\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mbechthold\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\\\/maps\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/01\\\/reconfigurable-inflatables\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\\\/maps\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/01\\\/reconfigurable-inflatables\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"mbechthold\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\\\/maps\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/68db6f98804318240476c197f2c0a5ee\"},\"headline\":\"Reconfigurable Inflatables\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-01T09:10:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-01T09:15:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\\\/maps\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/01\\\/reconfigurable-inflatables\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":150,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\\\/maps\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/01\\\/reconfigurable-inflatables\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\\\/maps\\\/files\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/prototype1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"adaptive systems\",\"designscience\",\"science\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\\\/maps\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/01\\\/reconfigurable-inflatables\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\\\/maps\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/01\\\/reconfigurable-inflatables\\\/\",\"name\":\"Reconfigurable Inflatables - 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