Empty space. That's all there was to be seen in the Dome just a few months ago. But now the exhibitions are coming into focus. What will the public be paying to see?
After months of prevarication and no little public debate, the New Millennium Experience Company is rather nervously releasing information on what will be inside the Millennium Dome. It is now public knowledge that the vast exhibition space will feature no less than 16 themed exhibitions, or "zones". What is less clear is who is designing them, how they will be serviced, and whether they will be finished by 31 December 1999.

We do know that the 16 zones will draw on the skills of at least six m&e design consultants. However, it must be said that while the design ideas for the exhibitions are exciting and inspiring, the services design will be fairly bland. M&E design here will not push the frontiers – largely, it seems, because of the fast ticking clock constraining design and installation.

Living Island

London-based design firm Work has the Living Island on its drawing boards. Work is planning to use a seaside scene to illustrate six different environmental issues:

  • global warming;

  • marine pollution;

  • water consumption;

  • air pollution;

  • land use;

  • domestic waste.

    These issues will be presented by showing the cause of the problem, what effect it has, and what visitors can do to make a difference. Clearly the hope is that they will be fired up to help tackle the issues.

    Each of the issues will be UK-oriented. So, for example, the issue of global warming will reflect the national consequences of climate change. Other than that, the details have not been finalised.

    Local Zone

    Local Zone will be the largest recycled cardboard structure in the world. Covering 1300 m², the two-storey spiral structure will boast a hundred 12 m-high columns, each spun from cardboard donated by Blue Peter viewers.

    Local Zone will examine how we live as individuals within neighbourhoods and communities. Philip Gumuchdjian, of architects Gumuchdjian and Spence, said that asking children to donate cardboard is "a way for the people of Britain to engage with the design." Gumuchdjian was inspired by the work of Shigeru Ban, who used paper buildings in Japan to provide low cost housing for earthquake victims. He sees more potential to use cardboard in construction.

    Gumuchdjian said that the building services "will not be very interesting." Based on a throughput of 3500 people/h, the services focus on pumping in enough air for ventilation.

    Sky Entertainment Zone

    This Sky-sponsored zone (formerly called Baby Dome) consists of two 2500 seat auditoriums sited outside of the dome. Measuring about 50 x 120 x 25 m, the tent-roofed building grows out of a tarmac-based 'swimming pool', decked over with a raised floor plenum that carries the raked seats.

    Fulcrum Consulting has worked directly with ESS to design services that can be installed as fast as possible, with minimum disruption. They are using four ahus that will blow 10 m3/s of fresh warmed or cooled air through pits under the ring beam and up below the floor of the auditoriums.

    The air then goes on a long tour through a labyrinth that runs back and forth across the building. This maximises contact with the ground, so stabilising temperatures. The air finally emerges, gently displaced, beneath the occupants seated above.

    Fulcrum's acousticians faced the thorny problem of containing the noise from a rock concert without disrupting the dome. They will use an acoustic lining, zipped into the lightweight skin, and a soft interior to absorb the sound. Both are being designed for rapid installation just before the dome opens.

    The designers adopted a novel set of working methods, bringing together the whole team for very fast decision making. At the request of the client, the project design manager, construction manager, services consultant and contractor locked themselves in a room to agree on the concept, specification and price.

    Client and contractor alike are used to the super-tight deadlines imposed on big rock concert productions. They use off-site prefabrication wherever possible. So wiring for the zone will be fixed to the main structural members while still on the ground, making access easier.

    Even construction lighting will form part of the prefabrication package. Only the final connections will need to be completed after the building has been erected.

    Control and transformer rooms, and ahus are fitted in standard containers to make them easy to move into position.

    • Source

    Building Sustainable Design