Advanced Construction Technology
By Professor Chris Gorse & Ian Dickinson – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – Share Alike License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Eden Project: Steel Space Frame
Chris Gorse and Ian Dickinson
These slides should be read in conjunction with Emmitt, S. and Gorse,
C. (2010) Barry’s Advanced Construction of Buildings. Oxford, Blackwell
Publishing
Dome space frame
Hexagon space frame
Eden project
• The hexagonal space frame
• The transparent hexagonal membranes of the
biomes are made of a special thin material
called EFTE (ethyene tetra fluoro ethylene copolymer foil)
• 200m long, 100m wide 50m high (largest
dome 65m radius)
Space frame – The Eden Project
• The dome is a space frame reliant on two layers.
• The lower layer, an icosahedral geodesic skin, made up of hexagonal
modules. The hexagonals have approximate diameters ranging from 5m
to 11m.
• The hexagon is made up of six straight, compressive, galvanised steel
tubes, these are light, relatively small and transportable.
• Each hexagon is pre-assembled on the ground before it is craned into
position and simply bolted to its neighbouring hexagon by a standard cast
steel node.
• The lower primary layer is joined to a secondary one by diagonal Circular
Hollow Section members at the node points.
• Structural stability is obtained by the "shell action" of the intersecting
domes.
• The space frame prevents the structure collapsing.
• These are anchored to reinforced concrete strip foundations at the
perimeter
Node
Lattice girder and space frame
Space frame