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Keep in mind this is the first commercial version of the technology; I'm sure it will rapidly progress beyond dingy, musty blobs.

With the strength and light weight of the structure, along with the product's minimal cost compared to more traditional building materials and methods, I could see this being used to create very interesting and organic home designs. If the material is able to pass California building codes for earthquake preparedness, I could see people building whimsical temporary substructures, placing these on top and hardening them, then removing the substructures, enabling a much greater variety of possible forms. I could see doing something cool with stacked layers of bubbles and cut-outs for passages and windows.

Another interesting application for something like this would be structures on the Moon or Mars, if you could make the material on-site, or at least the heavy parts of it (cement and water).

Difficulty in getting the materials to build a wooden structure to the disaster zone would make the concrete tent a better option in many cases.

This. I think the advantage is in ease of transport vs. wood and related wooden building materials. Furthermore, not every disaster site is going to have in situ wood on hand for building, let alone in a form suitable for any sort of ad hoc construction needs.

You both completely missed my main point.

You're aging the fact that these things provide better temporary structures than wood buildings, but as temporary structures, the current standard is modular tenting.

A good example of this might be Haiti. I believe there was very little wood around, which contributed the the crisis to begin with.

Again, the difference is that of the nature of the structure.

In a disaster zone like in say, Haiti, modular tents would outperform these things in every conceivable way, including survivability.

You don't even begin to think of rebuilding until months later. At that point, I don't think you'd want to make one of these your permanent home.

> I find it very difficult to believe that anyone would want one of these dingy, musty things over a proper wood or concrete framed construction.

Well, around here, wood-framed construction is only found in shantytowns. This would be a big step up, I think. And if you think it's easier to build a wood-framed structure than to inflate a wet bag, count me skeptical of your construction experience.

You're not sure about the need for a sterile structure that can be erected in 24 hours, almost anywhere in the world?

I think he's suggesting that he's not convinced this is better than a tent for a relatively temporary sterile structure. I'm also not really sure what 'sterile structure' means in this context. I suppose it means it's very cleanable? Cause as far as literally being sterile.. these concrete tents have just been blown full of air, which presumably came from just outside.

In the video he said steralizable not that its already steralized.

You're aware that western military forces currently build entire trauma centres out of the tenting I described, correct?

I wonder if the sweet spot here might be the adaptability of the material. Maybe there are specific needs to quickly install structures of a specific shape/size where this material could be especially advantageous.

I agree. Quick, ugly and permanent are not qualities of a good solution to most problems, but quick, strong and pliable are. It looked fairly demolishable, too, so there might be something in using it for installations and wilderness construction. I'm thinking specifically about youth events - festivals and campsites. Basically, anything unique to the location that or that you'll be leaving unsupervised in a slightly hostile environment.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

At least it looks cool, organic and futuristic at as other posters already said. When I saw the video, the first thing that popped into my mind was: I want to use this to build a retreat in some desert in the middle of nowhere. Reminds me a bit of the settlements in Star Wars - A New Hope and those autarkic villages in New Mexico.

It would be much easier to build a traditional wooden structure once you've decided that you need one.

One of the problems Haiti has is that they have no more wood.

Have you considered price in your analysis?

Pretty sure fabric tents are cheaper in every way.