4. THE BEGINNING OF THE ACADEMIC RESEARCH
If engineers like Bird and Stromeyer were the pioneers on the commercial applications of the
pneumatics and acquisition of empirical knowledge, it was Frei Otto the first to undertake
academic investigations, specially about the process of form finding. Through the IASS
Pneumatic Colloquium (University of Stuttgart, 1967) and several publications and designs, Otto
broadened the landscape, not only of pneumatics, but of tension structures in general. Pneumatics
were also part of the repertoire of Richard Buckminster Fuller. His proposal of a pneumatic dome
to cover New York (1962, Figure 6) is a famous example of Utopian pneumatic architecture.
Realization of this project would require a radical environmental transformation, a sterilized
enclosure without dust, pollution, exhaust gases and so.