Phyllis Court, a place where “elegance and tradition blend seamlessly with modern requirements,” is known for its historical Grandstand Pavilion.
The Grandstand Pavilion overlooks the finish line of the Regatta on the River Thames and in 1912 King George V and Queen Mary made a visit to watch the Henley Royal Regatta. Since then this Grade II listed landmark has been very popular for weddings and events.
As part of a major renovation, the Pavilion canopy, originally installed in 1993 and made of PVC Coated Polyester, has now been replaced with a modern new fully insulated fabric roof. The fabric structure, measuring 35m x 8m, offers 280m2 of covered space that will be usable all year round.
Twin Skin Fully Insulated Fabric Roof:
Much like the fabric roof we installed in 2013 over the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, the new fabric roof over the Grandstand Pavilion had to meet Part L and achieve a U-Value of 0.18. How do you achieve that using fabric? By layering the fabric.
The outer layer is Silicone Glass fabric, the middle layer is multi-foil insulation and the inner layer, (forming the ceiling) is also Silicone Glass. By combining these three layers with air gaps between the layers, we create a twin skin fully insulated fabric roof that looks clean, elegant and allows the space below to be climate controlled. Silicone Glass was chosen because of its low maintenance, has a Class O Fire Rating, and a long lifespan.
The six bay structure will be fully enclosed with sliding glass panels (by others), allowing the structure to be opened up for fresh air and sealed up in heavy wind, rain or snow. Two additional single skin curved sections were added to each end of the the structure to finish out the design and create interest.
Challenges:
Working with any Grade II listed building has its challenges, but working alongside the edge of the river Thames added extra complications. Safety and access were carefully considered to ensure things went smooth.
The existing Victorian steel supporting columns were left in position on the Pavilion. As part of the re-design, we replaced the supporting roof frame work with a new steel barrel vault support structure designed to integrate the multiple layers of fabric. The structure has been fully engineered to take loads imposed by snow along with high forces of wind off the river.
Acknowledgements:
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