Inflatable structures offer a compelling vision for lightweight, compact, and easily deployable forms. This project proposes a novel type of inflatable: one made from two sheets of thin, inextensible material joined together along carefully designed curves. As air is pumped in between, the unsealed regions expand, while the fused curves restrict this motion. The result is a controlled transformation from a flat surface into a stable, self-supporting 3D shape.

This method stands apart from conventional inflatable systems, such as parallel tube patterns, which join the two sheets along a set of evenly spaced, straight lines. While easy to fabricate, these designs suffer from major limitations. They tend to inflate into forms that are rigid in one direction but collapse easily in others, behaving more like a set of beams connected by soft hinges. This leads to poor structural stability, especially under external forces like gravity or wind.

Our approach, by contrast, enables spatially varying contraction and distributed stiffness, allowing the structure to curve smoothly and resist deformation in multiple directions. This opens new design possibilities, making inflatables more versatile, robust, and aesthetically diverse.