Giant indoor halls and their cost

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Jurek7

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I started wondering what are the largest transparent building roofs in the world and how much they cost? Could they be a model for future zoo exhibits?

Eden Project in England (2001) is covered by plastic ETFE roof. It actually contains few free-roaming small birds. It has two halls: 1.56 ha area and up to 55 m tall, and 0.654 ha in area and up to 35 m tall.
Eden Project - Wikipedia

Gardens by the Bay in Singapore (2012) contain two glass-covered greenhouses. Flower Dome reported to 1.28 ha area and be worlds largest glass greenhouse. Cloud Forest is 35 m tall.
The biggest indoor garden - Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Traveller Reviews - Tripadvisor
Gardens by the Bay

It looks like both are smaller in area but taller than Zoo Leipzig's Gondwanaland: 1.65 ha in area but 17.2 m tall.
Gondwanaland – Wikipedia

I wonder are there any other examples of giant transparent roofs in the world: shopping malls, airports, science centers, entertainment spaces?
 
The Mall of America in Minnesota has an amusement park at its center that is glass covered; the glass portion of the roof is about 2.5 hectares. The amusement park under the glass is heavily planted with trees like Ficus and Norfolk Island Pine and has changes in elevation to produce an outdoor feel. This mall is also planning a water park expansion that will have a 2 hectare ETFE roof, with the expansion apparently priced at US $250 million.

Several professional sports stadia in the US also have large transparent roofs. The largest is US Bank Stadium (also in Minnesota) which has an ETFE roof covering the southern half of the 4.5 hectare stadium. Globe Life Park in Texas also has a large transparent portion in its roof.
 
Jurek7 said:
I started wondering what are the largest transparent building roofs in the world and how much they cost? Could they be a model for future zoo exhibits?
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Costs, of course, need to be more than construction: heating/cooling is one thing in Singapore and another in Cornwall
 
The Monsoon Forest at Chester Zoo is a much smaller structure than those mentioned above at 5152 sq m (0.5152 ha), but I think it is still the largest zoo building in the UK. Its triple-ply ETFE roof was effective and attractive. It is worth noting that the plastic did not burn in the dreadful fire in December 2018, despite the photos and videos showing flames leaping out of the southern end of the building, the film simply melted in the heat. The roof has been replaced and the building is due to reopen later this year.
 
Zooplantman said:
Costs, of course, need to be more than construction: heating/cooling is one thing in Singapore and another in Cornwall
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I think Eden Gardens are not heated at all, due to the mild climate and the ability of transparent roofs to heat up. Zurich's Masoala has an engineering design which stores excess heat (and also stores rainwater falling on the huge roof for sprinkling plants). Apparently even in winter the heating cost of the hall is much reduced.
 
Jurek7 said:
I think Eden Gardens are not heated at all, due to the mild climate and the ability of transparent roofs to heat up. Zurich's Masoala has an engineering design which stores excess heat (and also stores rainwater falling on the huge roof for sprinkling plants). Apparently even in winter the heating cost of the hall is much reduced.
Click to expand...
Great points but all of that engineering adds to the capital costs even if it saves on operating costs.
 
Jurek7 said:
I started wondering what are the largest transparent building roofs in the world and how much they cost? Could they be a model for future zoo exhibits?

Eden Project in England (2001) is covered by plastic ETFE roof. It actually contains few free-roaming small birds. It has two halls: 1.56 ha area and up to 55 m tall, and 0.654 ha in area and up to 35 m tall.
Eden Project - Wikipedia

Gardens by the Bay in Singapore (2012) contain two glass-covered greenhouses. Flower Dome reported to 1.28 ha area and be worlds largest glass greenhouse. Cloud Forest is 35 m tall.
The biggest indoor garden - Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Traveller Reviews - Tripadvisor
Gardens by the Bay
Click to expand...
Eden Project was designed to capture as much Cornish sun as possible while Gardens By The Bay was designed to reflect as much Singaporean sun as possible. Different designs and different materials to suit the specifics of the site. Both went through much prototyping and testing before construction to make certain that their approach would work. That, too, adds cost.
Here is an example of what can be involved (It should be mentioned that some of the engineers who worked on this previously worked on Eden and / or on Singapore):
Jewel Changi Airport: Project Profile
 
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