"The design of the enclosing membrane led the team towards ETFE – a high performance polymer that is assembled in triple layer ‘pillows’ that are then inflated for structural rigidity. ETFE offered multiple benefits resulting in a virtuous circle of efficiency: the ETFE pillows could be made much larger than glass and were 1% of the weight (a factor 100 saving in embodied energy). This substantially reduced the amount of steel required and allowed more sunlight into the building.
The end result was a radical reinterpretation of the greenhouse - an extremely lightweight enclosure that is self-heating for most of the year. The weight of the superstructure for the Humid Tropics Biome is less than the weight of the air that it contains. Having worked through the design process it is now possible to make a structure that is even lighter." - http://www.exploration-architecture.com/projects/the-eden-project-biomes
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