Air today gone tomorrow
August 1st 2008

This year's Farnborough International Airshow was housed for the seventh consecutive year by De Boer. The company talks temporary structures to Gerardine Coyne

At this year's Farnborough International Airshow, De Boer provided nearly 100 000m2 of temporary accommodation. Four huge exhibition halls, a 'Centennial Pavilion', over a kilometre of hospitality chalets and multiple other facilities were erected over the four months before the opening. More than 3600t of equipment was transported to the airfield during the event runup, filling over 200 articulated lorry loads.

Project manager Liz Routh says her 'Base Crew' of seven, who are permanently on hand, know the project inside out. With a constantly changing list of materials on site and requests for additional structures or removals, they have to be aware of everything that is going on.

This show was the seventh consecutive occasion De Boer has supplied structures, and one in which the company created an entirely new Alu Hall structure, 160m by 10m for use as one of the main exhibition halls.

"...modular construction means structures can be changed as a business structure changes." The main infrastructure for the buildings is the same every year. Steel frameworks are permanently onsite, and buildings are constructed around them. Companies buy the space from the airshow and then contact De Boer to provide structures, clients can then clad them how they like. Some companies request De Boer structures they have used previously at different locations, such as Bombadier, who requested the same 'Panorama' structure that De Boer had constructed for them at the Paris Airshow.

Exhibition Hall 4 has been on site since January for another event. For the airshow, De Boer took out the side panels and linked the hall to the adjacent structures. The PVC roof cells were taken off as the previous client had used white transparent cells to let in as much natural light as possible. The airshow required white opaque cells, as the more opaque the cells, the less air conditioning is needed. Site specific gutters and downpipes were also made for the show buildings.

Routh says this is the last year the old style double decker structures are being used, with a leg height of 6.4m. The new 'President' style double deckers are an improved structure, designed specifically for the site, with a 6.8m leg height, to give the best aeroplane sitelines.

Preconceptions The airshow marks the group's largest single assignment in Europe.

Though De Boer is keen to point out it can supply beyond the aviation sector, from sporting hospitality, to temporary warehouses to prisons. "Because the commercial side is so young, preconception is a problem," says Phil Beekhuijsen, De Boer's sales manager. "People phone up and ask for a tent because they are having a party in their garden!" Beekhuijsen says that even in the current economic climate he hasn't seen any 'blips' in requests for temporary structures. "People can rent for two, three, four years and the advantage is that the structure can be picked up and moved, and the modular construction means it can be changed as a business structure changes." The main issue with temporary structures is the weather. A lot of rain creates mud which can cause problems. However, with heavily advertised events such as the Farnborough Airshow, deadlines cannot be changed and solutions must be found. Routh laughingly admits that throughout the four months of preparation she often dreamed about the show. "For the first couple of months I kept a notebook by the side of the bed – I was waking up at 3am and scribbling down changes!" Looking around the site she says, "It's been a long and challenging project – but worth it. Seeing it all together leaves me speechless sometimes. It's wonderful!"

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