How to reduce the material costs of the dome became the most troubling issue for Chen Xin and the entire design team.
The original dome structure was mainly supported by high-performance lightweight steel, with EFTE air cushions integrated with the support structure to form the main body of the dome, and the outer layer covered with thermal insulation materials.
Among them, the outer thermal insulation layer and the EFTE air cushions apparently had no room for adjustment or modification; Chen Xin had already optimized these two layers sufficiently in the initial design of the dome, both in terms of structure and materials, resulting in the optimal solution.
So, as the saying goes, unless the materials are changed, there is nothing much to adjust.
