College Road: Tensile Fabric Sails

• 41no. individual fabric panels come together to form three fabric canopies
• Using Silicon coated glass cloth meant that light transmission could remain good even when layers were overlapped

Sandwiched between two high rise buildings, the courtyard at College Road experiences high wind speeds which make it an uncomfortable environment for passers-by. To interrupt the wind tunnel effect, architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill approached Architen Landrell to help them in designing a tensile fabric canopy.

Using a silicone coated glass cloth, the tensile fabric canopies are made up of overlapping sails which provide some protection from wind, rain and snow as well as providing solar shading in the summer months. With it’s high level of light transmission, the silicone coated glass cloth means that the canopy maintains the open feeling of the courtyard and the layered fabric brings differences in colour and light diffusion for added interest.