The structure solved with great elegance the problem of how to enclose and protect the separate exhibition ‘zones’ from the vagaries of the British climate. Providing 100,000 m² of enclosed space (2.2 million cubic metres), the structure is 320 m in diameter, with a circumference of one kilometre and a maximum height of 50 m. The Dome is suspended from a series of twelve 100m steel masts, held in place by more than 70km of high-strength steel cable which in turn support the Teflon-coated glass fibre roof.

Although more than 6 million people visited the attraction during 2000, its internal elements – which accounted for most of the total project cost – were destroyed’.

During the millennium year, more than 6 million people visited the attraction, and the building closed at the end of 2000 awaiting an uncertain future. Today the building is known as the O2 and is phenomenally successful as a world class entertainment venue, and remains testament in my belief that the building should always be a ‘peoples building’ and not some vast impenetrable fortress.

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