A PASSION

The Wind Hunter is the story of a passion for the air architecture.

 

 

 

MAGIC FOREST, TECHNOLOGICAL FOREST 

The story starts when Michele Boni decides to work on a theater building’s project during his degree at Firenze College. Torre del Lago, the town where the composer Giacomo Pucini’s was born, has an open pit theater ideally located in a breathtaking natural parc. The town plans to rebuild a more classical theater, a closed one, so that spectators can come to see plays all year long. This project calls out Michele. Indeed, twisting such a beautiful place is unfortunate for him. To submit an alternative, he thinks about a concept of invisible closing from air curtains. The Wind Hunter’s ancestor was born.
 

Torre del Lago theater

 

SELECTED FOR THE SWISS NATIONAL EXHIBITION

For his master's degree in 1997, he studies histories and theories of the contemporary architecture at the AA-Architectural Association (London) with the intention to understand this new air space and to giving it a meaning. In 1998, he wants to give an impetus to his invention. He submits his concept to the Swiss National Exhibition (expo.0.1). The project fits exactly with the conception the exhibition director has imagined. Pleasantly surprised to have someone able to anticipate needs and trends, he immediately entrusts Michele to set up his system in order to protect visitors on the four exhibition’s spots.

 

This opportunity allows him to collaborate Ove Arup and Partners to achieve the first feasibility study. In this time, this idea is so revolutionary that it is well ahead of his time. Michele Boni is regarded as an unusual and original inventor.


Four exhibition spots

 

 

THE SECOND FEASIBILITY STUDY

A change in the exhibition supervising staff stops the project. But it does not prevent Michele to go through with his ideas. He integrates the EPFL School (Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne) for a PHD and he becomes simultaneously assistant within the department of architecture. At the same time, the idea obtains the label of CTI-KTI (Swiss National Commission for Innovation). A second feasibility study confirms feasibility of the concept for good.
 

Space Generator

 

 

THE FUTURE WIND HUNTER REALIZATION

Michele is very eticulous about his product conception. In 2004, he transfers his doctoral studies to Paris to work on the relationship between air and architecture. In 2007 he products the first prototype of the future Wind Hunter.


First prototype of the Wind Hunter

 

 

 

A RECOGNIZED EXPERTISE

Today, Michele Boni is a real expert when it comes to the relationship between air and architecture. Besides, he has been teaching "Architecture and Experiments" since 2001 in several schools of architecture (Ensa Paris Malaquais; Ensa Rouen, Ensa Nantes / Esa Special School of Architecture, University of Firenze ...). His book about the relationship between the air and architecture on its way..