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Article from issue 12/2002 »Buildings with Plastics«

National Space Centre Museum in Leicester

documentation p. 1578 - 1582
Architect Grimshaw, Nicholas & Partners | Specialist Planner Land Use Consultants | Montresor Partnership | Structural Engineer Ove Arup + Partners |

Drafts
Axonometric (not to scale)
Clamping detail 1:5
Floor plans in exhibition tower 1:500
Section through exhibition tower 1:250
Site plan 1:4000
Vertical and horizontal sections 1:20

Forming part of the National Space Science Centre, this 42-metre-high exhibition tower adopts the aesthetics of space travel. Stretched between a lightweight steel structure, the facade consists of three-layer ETFE-membrane cushions 3 m high and up to 20 m in length. The polythene material is resistant to UV radiation and has a self-cleaning surface. With a gridded coating it was possible to achieve varying degrees of transparency. Although the material has an expected life of 60 years, the fixings are designed to facilitate the replacement both of individual cushions and of the existing rockets with new ones. The three-dimensional curved form of the tower and the lightweight facade material allowed the legible steel structure to be reduced to a minimum.