Engineering design of the Millennium Dome

The initial idea for a national millennium event was the subject of an ideas competition in December 1995. In spring 1996, the government of the day took the decision to stage the millennium exhibition on the tip of the Greenwich peninsula in east London, using the exhibition as a motivator for the redevelopment of the whole peninsula. This paper describes the engineering design of the roof now known as the Millennium Dome, including the site constraints and civil and geotechnical aspects of the design. It also describes the principles behind the servicing of the Dome, and the environmental strategy that was adopted to suit the unique circumstances of the millennium exhibition.