ACEIZE

Remember how I said that I wanted to know more about the material being used by Norman Foster in the Astana tent project in Kazakhstan? Well, I took the extraordinary step of looking it up. Turns out that the material is called ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene). It has been used in some other similar applications around the world - notably the Eden Project and a few sports stadiums. Evidently it is very lightweight and relatively strong, making it a good material where the transparency of glass is needed, but weight is an issue. People also use this material in the creation of greenhouses.

Some resources on the web:

• Wikipedia entry for ETFE
• Chart of material properties of ETFE, this chart makes it look as though ETFE isn't really all that strong, and it certainly doesn't act like a great insulator - apparently it is better than glass, however.
• More information on the Eden Project, this is probably worth looking into again as it appears to be an updated version of the biosphere 2 project.