On view at the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale, in the Arsenale, is The Norman Foster Foundation’s first full-scale prototype of a hangar for drones, conceived for use in distributing medical supplies in Africa. The vaulted pavilion is built with two outer layers of ‘Durabric,’ a new kind of block of earth, compacted with cement, that has been developed by the LafargeHolcim Foundation. In a provisional feasibility study done under Professor Santiago Huerta Fernández, a medium-sized vault was built at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. The study was carried out by Carlos Martín Jiménez, a master mason, who participated in the project in collaboration with two MIT students, Sixto Cordero and Luisel Zayas. Also on the team were Víctor Segundo, Simba Lasluisa, and Luis Tituana, and everyone traveled to Venice to set up the actual pavilion.

A network of droneports, inaugural project of The Norman Foster Foundation, will be launched this year in Rwanda, and is to be operational by 2020. The plan is that all African villages will have one by 2030. Vídeo The Norman Foster Foundation