“Tropical Islands” ETFE-Foil cushion structure
Former CargoLifter Airship Hangar in Brand near Berlin
Originally built for the production of large airships, the former CargoLifter hangar, the world’s largest self-supporting hall will house an artificial tropical paradise of superlative dimensions to be marvelled at in the future:
Note the three people at the lower left for scale
A 5,000 m² large tropical sea with a 200 meter long white sand beach, a rain forest with 1,000 different plants and trees, a 1,500 m² large tropical lagoon and numerous catering facilities and exotic show programmes shall help to attract thousand of visitors daily as of 2005.
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In order to supply the tropical plant life in Tropical Island with the required lighting using natural daylight / UV light, a new transparent roof was built. A roof surface of 20,000 m² will be provided with a structure of three-layered, air-supported pneumatic cushions on the existing main supporting structure made of steel.
The crystal-clear Teflon foil (ETFE) makes it possible for natural daylight to penetrate to a rate of up to 97 %. and the air cushions provide for sufficient heat protection. A total of 60,000 m² of the special foil and approx. 16 kilometres of aluminium-sheathed special wire cable will be processed.
| Architect | CL Map |
| Construction | CENO TEC GmbH |
| Statics | Form TL |
| Hall data: | |
| Base surface | 66.000 m² |
| Length | 360 m |
| Width | 210 m |
| Height | 107 m |
| ETFE foil roof data: | |
| Roof surface | 20.000 m² |
| Quantity of pneumatic cushions | 56 |
| Cushion dimensions | approx. 20.6 x 15.8 metres |
| Foil thickness | 200 µm external layers, |
| 100 µm intermediate layers | |
| Fire protection | fire-retardant according to DIN 4102B1 |
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