Oriam Sports Performance Centre: Tensile Fabric Roof

• Lightweight and flexible membrane
• Good levels of light transmission
• Cost effective over large spans

A lightweight PVC coated polyester tensile fabric membrane forms the roof covering for Oriam, Scotland’s national performance centre for sport, at Heriot-Watt University’s Riccarton campus in Edinburgh. At an impressive 116m x 76m in plan, the structure is Europe’s largest span tensile fabric roof over an indoor 3G pitch. Designed to be able to be subdivided to create smaller team spaces if needed, the PVC coated polyester roof provides the overarching enclosure and primary waterproofing layer.

The roof is formed from 16no. large tensile membrane panels stretched over a series of diagonal arches to form an undulating barrel vault form. The arches give height and depth to the tensioned roof panels and ensure an efficient and cost effective way of covering a large space.

Performance is at the core of the design ethos of the building; an environment designed to allow athletes to perform at their best, surrounded by high performance building materials. PVC coated polyester was chosen for a couple of key reasons:

• As an architectural membrane, it is lightweight and flexible, allowing for structural movements and deflections.
• Good levels of light transmission through the tensile membrane meant that the use of artificial lighting could be minimised.

Widely recognised as a beautiful addition to a long legacy of pioneering British sports architecture, the project won the award for Project of the Year (Leisure) at the 2018 CIBSE Building Performance Awards.