1. 1
O 2
A R E N A ,
L O N D O N ,
U K
D a n i e l Ya p C h u n g K i a t 0 3 0 9 1 0 0
C h r i s t i o d y 0 3 0 4 1 9 1
C h i n P u i M a n 0 3 1 0 3 3 1
C h e a n g E i l e e n 1 0 0 6 A 7 7 2 4 9
C h e w W e n L i n 1 0 0 7 C 1 0 6 4 6
A l e x W o n g K a i T z e 0 3 0 3 2 2 8
2. 2
Content
Introduction 3
Construction method 5
Advantage and disadvantage 6
Material of the actual building 9
Load distribution analysis 12
Modelling process 13
Analysis od failure/success(process) 17
Final Model 19
Conclusion 20
Reference 21
3. 3
Introduction
O2 Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in London, England. It is covered by Millennium Dome, a
large white PTFE coated glass-fibre fabric with twelve 100 meter high yellow towers which indicate each month of
a year and each hour of the clock face. Millennium Dome was designed and built between 1996 and 1999. The aim
of building Millennium Dome was to house Millennium Experience exhibition. The dome was designed as a ten-
sioned fabric-and-cable roof by a bunch
of architect to provide shelter for the Mil-
lennium Experience exhibition. Due to
the financial problems, the original exhi-
bition and associated complex have been
demolished except the dome. Millennium
Dome was then sold to the O2 Compa-
ny. Currently, the structures under the
dome such as arena, basketball court and
complex etc. have attract millions of vis-
itors. As a large arena in the world which
covered by one of the largest dome in the
world, it has become the famous venue
for concerts and family shows.
4. 4
O2 Arena Builders
There are a few architect who design and construct this Arena, O2 Arena, London (Millennium Dome). In addition,
they also has consultant for the material used especially the dome’s fabric.
Architects, Builders and Consultants Head
Architect: Richard Rogers(Head)
Concept Architect: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
Design Architect: Bblur Architect  
Photos + Information: HOK Sport / Populous
Engineer: Buro Happold
Main Contractor: ISG Group
Specialist Fabric Consultant: Base structure
This Arena was design by Richard Rogers. He is known for his
functional and semi-modernist design flair in UK. There are a few building he had
worked on. Building such as Lloyd’s Building and The Court of Human Rights Build-
ing in Strasbourg. In addition, he had also won a number of medals and awards. A
few example would be The Thomas Jefferson Medal, the Minerva Medal, the RIBA
Stirling Prize, and the Pritzker Prize in recognition of his architectural achieve-
ments. He is also a partner at the Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners architecture firm.
Introduction
5. 5
Construction Method
O2 Are na Surface Structure
The entire roof structure of O2 Arena was made up of Thin Shell Structure “Membrane Structure”. Its members are
united as 1 homogeneous entity to form the structure and spaces. The membrane is made up of fabric structure and
other tensile structure. This kind of construction is also consider as a light weight construction. Considering the
surface is a thin and flexible membrane, it has the ability to resist a certain load through the tensile stress from the
fabric itself without it being compression or bending. It is the largest in the world with a diameter of 320m (1050 ft.).
How it is built
The entire fabric is being supported by 72tensioned steel stringer cables paring with
32mm diameter steel spiral strand each for providing tension. The fabric material uses
PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) - coated fiberglass. The stringers are supported at a
radial spacing between 25m and 30m by an arrangement of upper hanger and lower
tie-down cables set out around the 12 100m high primary steelwork masts. The string-
ers on their radial lines are being kept in place by the circumferential cables. The force
from the primary cables produce by rain, snow, wind etc from nature, everything is
being collected from the centre by a 30m diameter cable ring. This was built with 12
48mm diameter cables to provide safety against failure or error of cable breakage. At
the perimeter, the radial cable forces are collected by 12 curved boundary cables and
taken to 24 anchorage points.
6. 6
Advantage & Disadvantage
Advantagesofthe designstructure
- Extremely light weight
- Large span (size)
- Minimum amount of structure
- An open and unobstructed interior
- The low weight of the materials makes construction easier and cheaper than standard design
Cost efficiency
Depending on the requirement, the shaped fabric under tension is able to reduce the
cost of construction by increase its spanned area under tension. In addition, the mem-
brane provides both structure and roofing shell.
DesignFreedom
With the flexible and highly formable systems provided from the tensile fabric mem-
brane, this provide the architect to go all out by using conventional construction materi-
als. It also improve its functionality by providing a well-designed tensile structure which
adds aesthetics to the building.
Noise pollution
The fabric curved construction method is able to diffuses both internal and external
sound and whilst absorbing at the same time.
7. 7
Lowerenergycosts
The fabric have high sun reflecting properties and low absorbency of sunlight. Trans-
lucent materials provide a comfortable and natural light source by removing all arti-
ficial lighting during the daytime. This greatly reduces the solar energy and heat that
enters the structure. The woven base cloth combined with the appropriate coating
allows a light transmission value of around 10%. This provides a very comfortable
level of illumination compared to the full brightness of outside.
Semi-permanent nature
Tension membrane structures ‘historically’ have been closely tied to major events
such as exhibitions, where shelters are needed for short periods of time. Tension
Fabric structures can be easily designed for rapid relocation and re-erection; mak-
ing them perfect for high impact event structures. Not only does this help with
practicality it also helps with planning permission for fixed term structures as they
are classed by most authorities as semi- permanent structures.
Advantage & Disadvantage
8. 8
Disadvantages
- Poor performance • Thermal
• Acoustic
- Exterior moisture and dehumidifier and address condensation
Difficult making meaningful connections
If there is no suitable structure within the existing building, it would be difficult to make
any meaningful connections to that building for a tensile canopy, but sufficient anchor-
age might be achieved for a rigid type of construction. That said, it is nearly always pos-
sible to design the canopy in such a way that it imposes identical loads onto a building
as a rigid canopy structure would, but in these cases, the cost of the additional engineer-
ing, steel fabrication and installation difficulties is likely to make it an uneconomical
solution.
Easy to be damaged
Fabric structures, if properly engineered and installed are virtually immune to damage
and weather properties. Providing that they are not likely to be vandalize or damage,
they provide a reassuringly simple and durable solution.
Difficulty of Maintenance
Dirt can be clearly seen glass or polycarbonate, however the light diffusing properties
of the fabric mean that the surface dirt is not easily identified. It’s quite surprising how
Advantage & Disadvantage
9. 9
Material
Materials for Millennium Dome (O2 Arena)
PTFE (polytetrafluroethlyene) coated glass fibre fabric
PTFE coated glass fibre fabric is a dynamic tensile material unmatched for its aesthetics and
durability making it ideal for large scale roof and tensile membrane structures. It is used for cladding the dome of
O2 Arena. It has the properties of high durability and flame resistance. Usually, this kind of glass fibres are not af-
fected by UV light but they are easily damaged by the water. Hence, a PTFE coating is needed to be applied on it.
The function of this coating is to protect the fibre from water and abrasion. However, the PTFE itself is complete-
ly inert and not affected by the weather. In all words, PTFE coated glass fibre has a longer life span and avoids the
problem of dirt retention and discoloration. This is why it always stay looking clean.
10. 10
Reinforced concrete
Reinforcedconcreteisacompositematerialwhicharecounteractedbytheinclusion
ofreinforcement, having high compressive and tensile strength. In fact, there
are 24 spots of reinforced concrete which we can find around the O2 Arena,
standing on top of the ground and are attached to main cables of this building.
It has been used as an anchorage points to support the whole structure. Con-
crete, if unreinforced, is notorious for cracking easily at any sourced of stress.
It will cracks at all thickenings, ends of embedded steel and even down the
middle of aisles. Hence, it has to undergo several retrofitting, like reinforcing
the concrete by adding steel rods to the concrete mixture, allowing concrete to
set solid. The steel rods ensures that reinforced concrete can withstand tensile
forces and hence, it become a versatile and composite material.

Rubber
The aim of using rubber for this building is to achieve a maximum of weight
saving in individual components and parts. Rubber offer a considerable poten-
tial due to its low density and flexibility compared with metal counterparts. At
the bottom of each 12 masts, there is a rubber pot bearing with a single locating
bolt. The bearing allows slight rotation of the mast at the connection point with
the pyramid. Usage of rubber at the pot bearing helps to improve resistance
to surface crac king due to higher binder of contents. At the same time, it also
helps in improving the aging and oxidation resistance of surface construction
Material
11. 11
Steel
In O2 Arena, steel is used mainly for its roof construction. Arranged radially over the fabric surface area the 72
tensioned steel stringer cables in pairs of 32mm diameter steel spiral strand. The stringers are supported at a radi-
al spacing between 25 and 30m by an arrangement
of upper hanger and lower tie-down cables set out
around the twelve 100m high primary steelwork
masts. All these masts, jut out from the fabric ceil-
ing, representing the months of the year and the
hours on a clock face. On the other hand, the upper
hangar, the lower tie-down cables carry the loads
from the fabric down to the ground when loaded by
wind or snow. The dome, was made up of the light-
est steel which are specified for the cables beneath
the roof, while a more durable mixture of alumin-
ium and zinc(of steel), is used for galvanizing the
external cables. Steel, is well known for its inherent
strength which enables architectural and design flex-
ibility. Hence, it is very suitable to be used for O2
Arena.
Material
12. 12
Force transfer from the dome through the tensioned steel stringer cable to the 12 steel masts.
Force transfer to the ground through the steel masts.
Compression force from the ground to withstand the load and weight from the steel masts.
Load Distribution Analysis
13. 13
Modelling Process
1)
First try out and locating the steel
structure in between which are sim-
ilar to the actual model to check the
proportion.
2)
First try on making the structure to
locate the fabric. Using hot glue gun
to stick the steel wires to form dome
structure.
3)
After doing some measurement of
the fabric according to the propor-
tion of the model, we draw it on the
material we prepared.
14. 14
Modelling Process
4)
After doing some measurement of
the fabric according to the propor-
tion of the model, we draw it on the
material we prepared.
5)
After drawing the line on the table
cloth, we stitch according to the line
drawn.
6)
After doing some measurement of
the fabric according to the propor-
tion of the model, we draw it on the
material we prepared.
15. 15
Modelling Process
7)
Reforming the steel structure by us-
ing the new method we find.
8)
When making the base of the steel
structure, we apply water on the pa-
per clay so that we are able to form
the smooth surface.
9)
Waiting for the paper clay to dry up
so that we can apply colour spray on
it.
16. 16
Modelling Process
10)
We spray the steel structure after the
paper clay base dry .
11)
For the detailing parts, we use screw
and nuts, zinc plate, paper clay and
steel cable etc for constructing the
base details according to what we
analyse.
17. 17
Failure/Success
Method of Construction
- We try a few different method to bring out the best product such as even using needle and string to steel and
wire cable. This is to bring out the not just the tex ture but also the feeling towards the real O2 Arena, London.
Some of us don’t know how to needle or threat and some of us even give up mid way bec ause of the confusion
and tangling in midway. Even though it may look easy but when we try it, it is not as easy as it looks. In addition
we not only have 1 but the entire roof is made of fabric and method of connection closest to the real thing is sew-
ing method.
Untidiness
The glue we used makes the steel dirty and cloudy. It is not as good looking as it was and it changes the texture of
the material.
18. 18
Failure/Success
Connection
-Based on the experiment we have mad, solder wire
melting method or using hot glue gun for connec-
tion is not working due to the materials properties.
Besides that, w e also don’t have the welding tools to
connect the steel wire.
Fail to use hot glue gun
Problem Facing
Materials
- We are unable to decide the most suitable material to
represent the materials used in the construction. After
few try-outs, we decide to choose something that have
the similar texture and coloration. In addition, the ma-
terial we are able to find is limited because some of the
materials are not affordable as the economy as a student
is limited and there is no separate parts sold.
Tablecloth Screws and nuts
20. 20
Conclusion
After the entire project, we notice that even the smooth surface has its own benefits and speciality. As
for the O2 Arena, London, we realize that the entire structure is mostly made from steel and fabric. In
addition, the building doesn’t have much fenestration compare to other arena or stadium. What makes
this building so special is because the entire structure is built within a building and the amount of ener-
gy it is able to save.
21. 21
Reference Link:
Michael mattan (n.d.). Millennium Dome in London - TensiNet. Retrieved June 15, 2014, from
http://www.tensinet.com/database/viewProject/3782
Rogers Stirk Harbour (n.d.). Facts - Millennium Experience. Retrieved June 10, 2014, from
http://www.rsh-p.com/work/buildings/millennium_experience
Millennium Dome. (2014, June 9). Retrieved from
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Millennium_Dome.html
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (n.d.). Millennium Dome (building, Greenwich, London, United
Kingdom) -- Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved June 16, 2014, from
http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/382742/Millennium-Dome
O2 Arena and Millennium Dome - Buro Happold. (n.d.). Retrieved June 16, 2014, from
http://www.burohappold.com/projects/project/o2-arena-and-millennium-dome-65/
Artifice, Inc. (n.d.). Millennium Dome - Richard Rogers - Great Buildings Architecture. Retrieved June 15, 2014, from
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Millennium_Dome.html
Industrial Fabrics Association International (n.d.). Millennium Dome—What’s up with that? - Fabric Architecture. Retrieved June 14, 2014,
http://fabricarchitecturemag.com/articles/0910_f3_millennium_dome_update.html
O2 Arena London, London Venue, O2 Arena Venue | e-architect. (n.d.). Retrieved June 16, 2014,from
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/london/o2-arena
Reference
