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Plastic polymers were once considered inferior to be accepted into the construction industry.

They were restricted to usage in indoor residential and commercial applications, but were never thought of being used in full-scale building applications. However, the technological advancements have now made certain plastic polymers like ETFE a popular choice among architects. End users as well as construction professionals have now started realizing the benefits of ETFE, which has brought it immense amount of popularity and preference today.

While ETFE was originally developed in the 1970s by DuPont, it only started becoming a popular material since 2008, when it was used successfully on the facade of PTW Architects’ Water Cube for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This fluorine-based plastic is a lightweight, heat resistant material that has been used in many other varied kinds of applications like coatings for the aerospace industry, agricultural applications like greenhouses, and much more. But, the widest usage today of ETFE is being seen in architectural applications. Today, in this blog, we will let you know about some of the most famous architectural constructions that have used ETFE as its chief material.

Eden Project – In 2001, ETFE saw its first large-scale application as the encapsulating membrane of the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK, which was a natural evolution of Buckminster Fuller’s Biosphere concept. ETFE was selected here due to its ability to reliably regulate environmental conditions within the structure through UV transparency. It could be printed with patterns, and layered to control solar conditions, which was essential to house climatespecific flora. Moreover, it was also realized that the material has a low friction coefficient

that prevents dirt and dust from sticking to its surface, thus reducing maintenance requirements.

Alliaz Stadium – The next ETFE structure built was the Allianz Stadium with 2874 ETFE foil air panels, inflated with dry air. The panels are individually lit with a preferred colour for every game played, with the colours preferably of the respective home team. The main colours are red for Bayern Munich, blue for TSV, and white for the German national football team.

Watercube National Swimming Centre – As spoken of above, this was the structure that caught everyone’s attention and made ETFE a popular constructional material. The ETFE was not used as a foil, but rather as cushions, which were continually filled with air to form a pneumatic system that provided thermal insulation and structural stability against wind and snow loads. Here also, the ETFE panels could be lit with colour-changing LEDs to create amazing patterns, allowing the structure to reflect whatever event was taking place inside.

Others – These are the three most famous structures made with ETFE. There is a very long list of other popular structures that have used ETFE as their major building material. These include Foster + Partners’ SSE Hydro Arena, 360 Architecture’s New Atlanta Stadium, ACXT’s San Mames Stadium, and U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Additionally, ETFE has also seen acceptance in many other non-sports architectural constructions like in the 2015 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion and the U.S. Embassy in London.

You can also add your building to the list of amazingly built ETFE structures by getting the best ETFE films and cushions (whatever your building requires) from leading ETFE suppliers in India like Tuflite Polymers, who has partnered with the most reputed Vector Foiltec in 2017 to provide the Indian subcontinent with this amazing material in its best quality and standards.