And so to Large-Scale Mega-Tents....

As Glastonbury comes to the end, and having assessed tents for festivals and to be used as houses, we move onto the largest of tensile structures, and one of the largest in the world is the London Thameside Millennium Dome. This structure, built-for and to celebrate the year 2000, is 365m across (3.5 football pitches) 52m tall (one for every week of the year) and the structural components actually weigh less than the air which it contains.

This building, which now houses the O2 Arena, provides shelter for up to 20,000 people attending major events and concerts, together with a series of shops and restaurants and all facilities required to support these concerts. The lifespan of the PTFE fabric cover is predicted at 25 years and so it was due for renewal in 2025, before Storm Eunace bought the fabric to a premature end in February 2022. Repair work ensued but maybe not the whole of the fabric roof is replaced as yet?

The engineering of the dome is highly innovative, and a brilliant example of stretching the component materials to their full capacity, very much akin to your domestic camping tent. Other examples of permanent tensile structures use the fabric for its durability, economy and flexibility, but quite often it is just stretched over a permanent frame such as an indoor sports facilities. There is clearly a real market for the use of tensile structures to cover massive area, and the more innovative and creative, the better they look.

‍

‍