This thesis explores the possibility of building resilience out of air by reimagining FEMA-rated dome shelters through the experimental spirit of Frei Otto, Dante Bini, and Heinz Isler. Constructed using pneumatic formwork, this typology of monolithic domes possesses exceptional structural capacity to resist catastrophic loads while serving schools in everyday use—most often as gymnasiums—and doubling as public shelters during high-wind events. Though this typology is structurally anticipatory, optimization has overshadowed architectural expression, producing spaces that privilege performance at the expense of experience and failing to create shelters that provide dignity and comfort to a community in and beyond crisis. By exploring the formal possibilities of air-formthin-shell construction, this thesis aims not only to expand the architectural potential of an existing construction typology, but also to reconsider the relationship between architectural form and social resilience.
Historically, surface structures stretched the human imagination of what was possible through the work of pioneers including Otto, whose experimental pneumatic models utilized restraint to produce form. This research brings together air-form construction and restrained pneumatic form-finding through a physical form-finding process that employs strategically restrained pneumatic membranes to create solid casts. Investigating the unrealized formal and spatial potential of pneumatic formwork, the project challenges the spatial and programmatic conventions of existing FEMA domes while maintaining their community scale and construction logic. In this thesis, structure, program, and architecture come together to propose an alternative future, envisioningemergency storm shelters as spaces of safety, dignity, comfort, and hope for the communities they serve.