Running for a number of weeks during the month of June, Creative Common was a creative initiative in the heart of the city of Bristol showcasing a spectacular array of music, performers and artists, coupled with bars and eateries. Base is proud to have played its part in supplying a PVC canopy to WH Bence, working on behalf of Inside Out Events, for The Goods Yard container bar as well as three yurt structures for Tipi Events.
The Goods Yard bar was creatively imagined with two industrial containers serving an open-air decking area. We manufactured a PVC fabric canopy to envelope and extend from the containers to create a sheltered alfresco drinking area, allowing customers to enjoy the facilities whatever the weather. Base also manufactured the fabric roofs and sidewalls for three traditional yurts in the Creative Common area.
The cultural installation opened with the critically acclaimed BIANCO circus. Esther O’Callaghan OBE, Acting Creative Producer for Creative Common commented “Creative Common 2013 will showcase the best of Bristol and welcome artists and audiences both local and international to the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone in a clear demonstration of how creativity can bring these public spaces to life”.
Our brief was to install a tensile fabric entrance canopy to the Ashley Down college building as part of the re-development at the site. The tensile structure needed to provide not only a dramatic and welcoming entrance but it also needed to be a functional sheltered area for students to congregate or as a meeting point.
We designed, manufactured and installed the entrance canopy, including fabric, supporting steel structure and associated fittings.
Our brief was to build a sun shade shelter and feature for the recreational terrace at the Cardiff children’s hospital. The tensile fabric structure needed to provide a sheltered area for outdoor eating and patient relaxation.
We designed, manufactured and installed the series of PVC sails including the supporting steel structures and rigging cables. A large part of the installation of this project was by rope access at high level. Thorough planning and pre site preparation ensured a smooth and successful installation
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in Fulham Road, London, wanted to transform a new patient seating area into a comforting space which has a private and cocooned feel. To do this, Base needed to complete a suspended lighting rig that could also carry privacy screening into the seating area within the heart of the hospital.
Base were employed to design, manufacture and install the fabric sails and lighting. We could not suspend anything directly from above the seating area and so we had to use tension cables which were rigged horizontally to fix tubular steel frames within a spider’s web of tensioned steel cables. These steel frames allowed us to form a geometric grid within the space, into which we could suspend a series of Hypar feature sails. The spaces between the sails were then used to incorporate the lighting assemblies.
The fabric sails create a contemporary yet comforting feel in the seating area and brighten up the heart of the hospital.
Famed for it’s bicycle riding academics, Cambridge University required a cycle shelter for the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics. This particular shelter needed to be top of it’s class as well as excellent value for money.
For this project, a curvaceous double cone form is one of the most efficient uses of fabric, minimising the steel content in the structure and thus minimising costs. The 165m2 footprint of the canopy provides plenty of room to keep over 50 bicycles dry and the built-in up-lighters diffuse light off the interior of the fabric creating a welcoming terminus for commutes in the darker winter months. Clear sky lights built into the top of the cones ensure natural light can easily penetrate to the ground below too.
This structure forms part of our pre-designed range and is called a Cairngorm 2P 16-12 which is easily made to order with reduced design costs compared to a bespoke structure. It has a multitude of uses including cafe seating, point of sale and of course an excellent bicycle shelter!
Our brief from was to develop an interior fabric ceiling system that would improve the customers experience within the station. The scheme was required to meet very stringent fire specifications which were achieved by the use of Sky 300, a silicone glass fabric developed by Ferrari.
Our scope of works included designing, manufacturing and installing the scheme, including the silicon glass fabric and wide angle up lighters. This was an intricate installation because all of the components had to be installed during night shifts, without the aid of plant and working over the railway concourse.
The ceiling has transformed the ambiance of the station from dull and dingy to bright and welcoming.
Located in the centre of Milton Keynes, Campbell Park needed a performance canopy to host many of the major festivals and events that take place in the town, from music and open air film performances to kite festivals and cricket matches. Likened to Central Park in New York, Campbell Park has grown into a central hub for recreation and entertainment, not to mention the contemporary developments continuing to grow along the periphery of the park.
To keep apace of the parks popularity, The Parks Trust has completed major works within the grounds in early 2012 – a significant part being this performance canopy. Intended for music concerts and theatre productions, the saddle canopy has demountable rear and side walls that can be removed to prevent vandalism when performances are not taking place. The steelwork has also been specifically designed to support a full range of stage lighting equipment, creating a theatrical facility worthy of any star performance.
The inclined nature of the main steel members presented a very challenging installation, but one that was completed within a very compressed time line to enable landscaping works to be completed shortly after.
The Campbell Park stage canopy also won an Award of Excellence at the 2012 IFAI International Achievement Awards.
Originally built in 1971, Bristol University’s Stoke Bishop self catering halls of residence accommodate over 300 undergraduate students in this enviable location of North Bristol. Forty years of student life had taken it’s toll on the facilities, however and a much needed modernisation programme commenced in 2013.
A Malvern 4P 700 was chosen from our standard fabric canopy range to extend the use of the exterior space and create a dramatic focal point outside the newly refurbished Source Café. Using structural PVC fabric, the free standing canopy is engineered to British Standards and designed for year round use – whatever the Bristolian weather may bring. Specified with cream coloured fabric and dark grey painted steelwork, the structure provides a welcome contemporary flourish to contrast with the modernist halls of residence.
Acting as a central hub of the new development, the canopy is far more than your average sail shade.
Designers MC Squared asked us to design, manufacture and install two canopies located at the 02 Arena for their client Brandwidth. One tensile canopy consisted of an inverted cone fitted to the underside of the existing services towers. The other was a freestanding conical canopy supported on a central mast and perimeter tripods.
Our scope of works included the membranes, supporting steel and fittings including the cables to support climbing ivy.
The transformation of the service tower was visually dramatic and enhanced the very popular venue. The client went on to propose additional structures on the site and at other venues.
Large advertising hoardings are not everyone’s cup of tea but in terms of sheer scale this one takes the biscuit! At over 6000m2 of roadside advertising area, this project was widely lauded as the largest Out Of Home opportunity available in the UK at that time. Sitting adjacent to the main arterial route from the M60 into Manchester and exposing full frontal glory to the new City of Manchester Stadium, this is one bill board that is impossible to ignore. Exposure was even claimed for airline passengers on the flight path into Manchester Airport!
During the planning application process our client had to guarantee to the Gas-o-meter owners Transco, that clothing the structure would in no way detract from it functioning as originally intended. Therefore prior to receiving approval, extensive structural engineering calculations were produced which predicted that by wrapping the skeletal steel frame within a web of suitably tensioned stainless steel cabling the structure would not deflect sufficiently to stop the rise and fall of the gas chamber within. Thankfully the calculations were spot on and the resulting fully clothed gas holder continued performing unhindered and as unabashed as it had when naked!
An additional USP of this site was that the cable net devised for carrying these super large printed banners allowed for quick, 8-hour removal and re-installation of the media so that a pair of eyes seeing it on the way to work in the morning would be exposed to a different campaign on the way home in the evening. Striking visibility has always been the life blood of the advertising industry.
in Bristol
