SHELL-LIKE DOME

Evening Star, Issue 22953, 10 May 1938, Page 3

SHELL-LIKE DOME

WITHSTOOD ONSLAUGHT OF GALE When workmen began putting the roof on Folkestone’s new foreshore landmark, a large circular building, with a glittering sky-blue dome, many people called on the clerk of works to warn him that tho place would collapse. Some of the town authorities at that time were of the same opinion. The whole town waited for the day when the thin steel scaffolding was to be removed from underneath the dome. The dome would then be left, a bare 6in thick, yet 100 ft in diameter and weighing 355 tons, to rest on a few slender pillars erected at the extreme 6 iut the shell-like roof, built of reinforced concrete without central support, remained intact. Gales and storms buffeted it without effect. Confidence was completely restored when workmen ascended the roof to seal it with asphalt into which blue glass chippings were rolled. The floating dome, the only one of its kind) in England, was designed by Mr D. Pleydell-Bouverie, 26-year-old British architect, who is noted for his imaginative work. . “T hope I have convinced those unfamiliar with this form of construction that my building will stand up,” he said.