What If Your Emergency Shelter Could Change Shape & You Can Carry It In Your Hands? New Structures Made It Possible

What if an inflatable structure could do much more than simply inflate and deflate? Researchers at Harvard have developed a new technology that allows inflatable materials to transform into different shapes and remain stable in each one. The breakthrough could lead to a new generation of lightweight, portable and shape-changing structures.

Inflatable objects are already part of everyday life. From pool toys and giant inflatable arches to vehicle airbags and emergency medical equipment, these structures are valued because they are lightweight, flexible and easy to transport.

However, most inflatable structures have a major limitation: they generally have only two stable conditions. They are either inflated or deflated.

Now, researchers at Harvard have found a way to give inflatable structures several stable shapes.

A team of engineers and architectural designers has developed a mechanics-based framework that can control exactly where crumples form in inflatable membranes. Instead of treating wrinkles and crumples as unwanted imperfections, the researchers turned them into useful mechanical features.

The result is a new class of inflatable structures that can change shape after inflation and lock into multiple stable configurations—a property known as multistability.

The research was published in the journal Advanced Science and could open the door to complex inflatable devices that are lightweight, portable and capable of changing their shape on demand.

Turning unwanted crumples into useful features

The research was led by Katia Bertoldi, the William and Ami Kuan Danoff Family Professor of Applied Mechanics at Harvard's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Martin Bechthold, the Kumagai Professor of Architectural Technology at Harvard's Graduate School of Design.

The project began with an unusual observation.

Hye Jun Youn, then a master's student at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, was experimenting with thermoplastic polyurethane film—the same type of flexible material commonly used in pool inflatables.

Youn created small modular inflatable structures called PneuBots. When inflated, some of these structures unexpectedly curled and bent into different stable shapes.

The behavior was interesting, but Youn wanted to understand exactly why it happened.

"I needed scientific data to prove this shape-changing behavior—something I couldn't prove myself," Youn explained.

Her work eventually brought her together with structural design professor Martin Bechthold and researchers in Katia Bertoldi's laboratory, whose group studies structures capable of changing shape and switching between multiple stable states.

When Youn first showed her prototypes to Bertoldi's research group, researcher Yi Yang immediately recognized something important.

The small inflatable pouch was not simply bending randomly. It was behaving like a bistable structure—a structure capable of remaining stable in two different configurations.

That observation became the foundation for the team's research.

How the inflatable structures change shape

The key to the technology lies in understanding how inflatable membranes behave under pressure.

A typical inflatable membrane is soft and flexible. When air is pumped inside, the material becomes stretched and pressurized. But rather than stretching uniformly, parts of the membrane can bend, wrinkle or crumple.

You can see a similar effect around the edges of Mylar balloons.

Normally, engineers try to prevent these crumples because they can make inflatable structures unpredictable or less aesthetically pleasing.

The Harvard researchers asked a different question:

What if crumples could actually be controlled and used as mechanical hinges?

To test this idea, they began with a simple flat rectangular inflatable pouch.

The researchers added carefully designed notches along its edges. When the pouch was inflated, these notches encouraged crumples to form at specific locations across the surface.

These controlled crumples effectively acted like hinges.

The researchers then discovered that by adjusting the size, geometry and spacing of the notches, they could control how the structure moved.

A hinge could reliably switch between two mirror-image configurations while the internal air pressure remained constant.

That meant a single inflatable unit could have two different stable shapes.

This is the essence of bistability.

From one inflatable pouch to complex structures

After understanding how a single bistable unit worked, the researchers took the idea further.

They connected many of these units together to create larger arrays.

By arranging the programmable hinges in different directions, they could create one-dimensional chains that folded like a series of hinged panels.

They could also create two-dimensional sheets capable of transforming into three-dimensional shapes.

This gave the researchers much greater control over the final form of the inflatable structure.

Instead of simply inflating into one predetermined shape, the material could be designed to transform into different configurations.

In smaller laboratory demonstrations, the researchers created inflatable panels capable of changing their curvature.

They also demonstrated interactive applications.

In one experiment, a small inflatable structure was connected to a lamp. When its crumpled hinge flipped from one stable configuration to another, it could effectively switch the lamp on or off.

This showed that the technology could potentially be used not only for passive structures but also for simple mechanical controls.

Scaling the technology to pavilion size

Creating a small laboratory prototype is one thing. Building a structure large enough for people to interact with is much more difficult.

To demonstrate that the concept could work at a much larger scale, the team developed a different manufacturing method.

Working with staff at Harvard's Graduate School of Design fabrication laboratory, the researchers modified a large CNC cutting machine.

The machine was used to create intricate patterns in wide rolls of polyurethane material.

The researchers then sealed the edges to create the final inflatable structure. For their largest prototype, they also worked with a commercial inflatable manufacturer in Providence, Rhode Island.

The result was a structure approximately person-height and several meters long.

When deflated, it could be transported by only a few people.

But once inflated outdoors, it expanded into a pavilion-scale shell.

Most importantly, the structure could reconfigure itself into several different forms.

The researchers demonstrated shapes including a cone-like enclosure, a tunnel and a canopy.

This large-scale experiment showed that the concept was not limited to tiny laboratory objects.

Could this technology make inflatables safer?

The researchers also investigated a potentially important application: impact protection.

Inflatable systems are already widely used for safety. Airbags protect passengers during vehicle crashes, while inflatable cushions and fall-protection systems can help reduce injuries.

The Harvard team wondered whether adding controlled multistability could make these systems better at absorbing energy.

When a multistable structure suddenly changes from one stable configuration to another, part of the impact energy can be dissipated through that transition.

To investigate this effect, the researchers performed drop tests.

They compared a conventional air cushion with their new multistable inflatable design.

The results suggested that the controlled-crumple structure could protect fragile objects from impacts more effectively in their experiments.

In one striking demonstration, an egg dropped onto a conventional airbag bounced and broke.

When dropped from an even greater height onto the multistable inflatable structure, the egg survived.

The researchers believe the structure's ability to change configuration helped dissipate some of the impact energy.

A new future for inflatable technology

The research could fundamentally change how engineers think about inflatable structures.

Instead of designing inflatables simply to expand and hold one shape, engineers could potentially design them to transform, adapt and lock into multiple configurations.

Possible applications could include shape-changing furniture, temporary buildings, deployable shelters, protective equipment and soft robotic systems.

The technology could be particularly useful in situations where weight and transportation are important.

A structure could remain compact while deflated, be transported easily and then expand into a much larger object when needed.

The researchers also believe the work demonstrates the value of combining different areas of expertise.

Architecture can provide new ideas about form and spatial design, while engineering can explain and control the underlying physical mechanisms.

As Martin Bechthold noted, scaling the technology to pavilion size was not guaranteed to work. Successfully demonstrating a large structure showed that the concept has potential beyond small laboratory experiments.

The most important idea behind the research may be surprisingly simple: a crumple does not always have to be a flaw.

By controlling where crumples appear, scientists can turn them into functional hinges that give inflatable materials new abilities.

Today's airbags, pool toys and inflatable structures mainly have one job: inflate and stay inflated.

Tomorrow's inflatables could be very different—structures that fold, transform, adapt and switch between multiple stable shapes, all while remaining lightweight and easy to deploy.

The Harvard research provides an important foundation for exploring that future.

Reference: Y. Yang, H. J. Youn, L. Kamp, et al. “ Reconfigurable Inflatables Through Controlled Surface Crumpling.” Advanced Science 13, no. 47 (2026): e00074. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202600074