MILLENNIUM DOME

LONDON, ENGLAND
Stephen Starkey
- MILLENNIUM DOME -
Commissioned to mark the beginning of the new Millennium, the
Millennium Dome was intended as a celebratory, iconic structure
offering an open and flexible space that could potentially house a
myriad of different events. It was designed to be the centerpiece of the
millennium celebrations in London in the year 2000.

The project was a key element of the master plan for the future
development of the entire Greenwich Peninsula that had been
previously abandoned because it was contaminated wasteland. The
Dome is precisely situated on the Meridian Line that runs through the
peninsula. It has become one of the United Kingdom's most
recognizable landmarks.
- BUILDING CONCEPT -
Because the building was commemorating the change into the new
millennium, the concept of the design was revolved around time. The 12
hours, 12 months, and 12 constellations of the sky that measure time
were integral to the original concept of the building representing the
role played by Greenwich Mean Time (located on Meridian Line). The
project director, Mike Davies, originally conceived of projecting comets,
stars, dawns and dusks onto the Dome’s surface, but this never came
to life in the final design.

12 towers project from the dome and represent great arms, out-
stretched in celebration. The cables that support the structure from
the towers are representing time and how it holds our world together.
The key objectives for the design were lightness of structure,
economically efficiency, and speed of construction.
- LIGHTNESS OF STRUCTURE –

The building’s structure was engineered by Buro Happold and is

described as a fabric enclosure with tensile supports. The entire roof
structure actually weighs less than the air contained within the
building. Although called a dome it is not actually considered a dome
structure because it is not self-supporting. The building is rather a
dome-shaped cable network that is supported by a series of masts. The
canopy is made of PTFE coated glass fiber fabric, a durable and
weather-resistant plastic. The structure itself resolves the issue of how
to enclose such a large interior open span while still protecting the
building from the British climate.

"The cable network to which the cladding is attached consists of a

series of radial cables, in pairs, which span 25 meters between nodes
supported by hanger cables connecting them to the tops of the masts.
Circumferential cables, which provide stability, also connect the nodes.
The downward curving radial cables are prestressed against the
hanger cables and this makes them almost straight and converts the
surface of the dome into a series of facetted panels."

- Angus J. MacDonald, Structure and Architecture

- OPEN STRUCTURE -
The Dome is suspended from the twelve steel towers that are held
in tension with more than 70km of high-strength steel cable. Each
tower also supports the Teflon-coated fiber roof that encloses the
space. This structure allows for the maximum amount of uninterrupted
interior space.

The Millennium Dome is the largest single roofed structure in the

world. The exterior appears as a large, white “tent” with twelve 100-
meter high yellow support towers protruding from the center. The plan
is a perfect circle, 365 meters in diameter, one meter for each day of
the year. The edges are scalloped at the entrance to each exhibit. The
symmetry of the dome is only interrupted by a large hole through which
a ventilation shaft rises. The interior reaches a maximum height of
50m.
- INTERIOR SPACES -
The interior space was subdivided into 14 zones — Body, Work,
Learning, Money, Play, Journey, Self Portrait, Living Island, Talk, Faith,
Home Planet, Rest, Mind, and Shared Ground — each with its own
section of the 100,000 square meters of enclosed space (2.2 million
cubic meters). The dome contained nearly 20 attractions, each
different in approach and style, creating a rich and inspiring experience.
At its heart was a central arena, with cafés and live events throughout
each day. Approximately 999 shows were performed in the year
leading up to the celebration.
- THE CELEBRATION –
Fewer people visited the Dome than anticipated, but the building
still attracted about 6.5 million people making it the second most
popular paid attraction in all of Europe. The visitor response was
overwhelmingly positive with visitor satisfaction levels of 85 per cent
(MORI, September 2000). The Dome did not achieve its target of 12
million visitors. However, this was likely a good thing because that
amount of attendance would have made the space unbearably crowded.
While it was open all throughout the year 2000, the Millennium Dome
closed to visitors on December 31st a few hours before the new
millennium began!
- ECONOMIC EFFICIANCY -
The building itself was remarkably inexpensive. The groundwork,
perimeter wall, masts, cable net structure and the fabric roof
combined only cost the firm £43 million. To put that into perspective,
the budget for the entire project was £758 million. The building was
constructed within fifteen months and within 4% of the original budget.
The majority of the cost of the building was on the interior, which
ironically was the destroyed after the millennium events.
- THE AFTERMATH –
While the form of was very successful, the function was far less
resolved. The Millennium Dome received more intense political and
public debate than any other British building of the last 100 years. The
building was perceived as being a facility for multiple venues, however
the government has struggled to retain a permanent use for it since its
conception. The scrutiny was probably well deserved. Although more
than 6 million people visited the attraction during 2000, today it
stands empty. The internal elements, which accounted for most of the
total project cost, have long since been destroyed. However, there are
plans to re-open the venue as a leisure complex and the building figures
to be a key element in the Summer Olympics to be held in London. After
the Olympics, the building is likely to become a permanent stadium
structure.