LET THE SUN SHINE IN
On any given day, we hear from countless guests about how much they love hanging out in the Wild WaterDome Indoor Waterpark. And frankly, we have to agree! When you’re in the Wild WaterDome, with its see-through roof allowing the sun to shine in, even on the coldest day of winter, it feels like you are in the tropics!
Guests often ask us what the roof is made of, and how it works, so we thought we’d take this opportunity to tell all of you!
The WaterDome’s roof is actually made up of a lightweight material called Foiltec that offers many advantages over traditional roofs in terms of energy saving properties, sound dispersion, lower structural costs and uninterrupted UV light transmission.
Its transparent layers are manufactured from Ethylene Tetra Fluoro Ethylene (ETFE) which, believe it or not, was first developed by DuPont for use in the NASA space program! The roof is amazingly light, weighing less than one pound per square foot, and it requires one-tenth of the energy to manufacture and transport than glass used for similar projects. Plus, because ETFE is related to Teflon, deposits of dirt and dust don’t attach to the surface and are washed away in the rain (Don’t you wish your windows at home would do this?)
And, as many of you know because the roof is transparent to ultra-violet light, our guests can tan indoors year-round and plants don’t just grow in this waterpark – they thrive! Next time you are in the WaterDome be sure to look for the banana trees that actually have bananas growing on them. Another benefit to UV light indoors is that sunlight naturally destroys many bacteria. Plus, it reduces the amount of natural resources the resort uses each month in heating costs.
