Base Structures were asked to design and install a tensile fabric sheltered walkway 120m long, running from the shopping centre to the bus stops. It spans between the shopping centre and the next door bus station.
We engineered, designed, manufactured and installed the fabric walkway canopy including the supporting steel structure, rigging cables and fittings. This installation was very successful, it was completed ahead of time and our clients are extremely pleased with the new walkway.
The fabric walkway provides the shopping centre with an impressive and effective sheltered area for the customers.
Our ever popular range of MakMax Architectural Umbrellas include this tried and tested favourite which in common with the rest of the range, we import from Australia where it is often found gracing the pavement areas outside cafe’s and eateries on the city streets and sea-side promenades.
What stands this fabric feature out from the crowd is the eccentric single mast fixing to ground. This clever bit of Antipodean engineering (which is certified to meet all current British Standards), ensures the clear area beneath the canopy is maximised and the structure is extremely quick (and therefore cheap) to install.
In addition to this we can also offer a range of bolt-on accessories such as lighting and heating modules which can make the overall package more attractive (maybe even suitable for our British summer al fresco dining experience).
The MakMax range of umbrellas can be delivered anywhere in the world as a flat-pack self assembly structure if required.
We were approached to suggest an effective way to disguise an awkward void in the Council’s Civic Centre’s, Banking Hall reception ceiling.
The solution was to provide four triangular fabric sails tensioned onto frames and suspended from the ceiling above.
We designed, manufactured and installed the tensile fabric sails, suspension cables and fittings. The sails were made from a lightweight pvc coated coated glass mesh fabric called Natte.
Combined with uplighters the sails are a dynamic and eye catching feature for the reception area.
Situated in the heart of London’s vibrant Shoreditch, the client brief was to create a shaded canopy area within the urban garden to encourage social interaction by the students.
Originally a 3 sided canopy was proposed, but after considering the movement in the fabric, Base suggested developing this idea into a 4 sided hypar canopy. The Mendip 4P 500 was chosen due to it’s distinctive curved masts that would provide a sculptural quality that compliments the high quality landscaping in its surroundings. This creates an inspirational social space as well as presenting a practical solution for the garden in many weather conditions.
With the manufacturing and installation completed smoothly, the canopy now fits in beautifully with it’s surroundings of a living wall, decking and urban garden space. The Mendip 4P 500 easily provides an upbeat and engaging social space or maybe even a study space once freshers is over!
This tensile fabric cladding system is designed to cover the existing space frame roof to the Park West Railway Station. Having not long completed an identical tensile structure at nearby Adamstown Railway station, our clients Mero and Irish Rail were very pleased with the success of that structure and happy for this second fabric clad roof to go ahead.
Using fabric as cladding in this way allows far more natural light into the building than more traditional alternatives and creates a very pleasant station environment.
Our brief was to build a covered walkway canopy as a feature for the new village centre building. The fabric structure provides sheltered access and serves as a method of improving the image of the centre to visitors. We designed, manufactured and installed the fabric walkway canopy including the supporting steel structure, rigging cables and fittings. We also installed the perforated stainless steel balustrade and hardwood walkway and handrail.
This project was fairly complex with the combination of the balustrade and relied on good preparation. The installation went very well and in on time.
The structure looks good and has improved the centre. All parties are pleased with the results.
Following a fire at the Bus Station in which large areas of the existing tensile roof structure was damaged beyond repair, Base Structures were commissioned to remove the fire damaged areas of fabric, survey the existing steel and assess for structural damage, and then to replace all damaged fabric elements with new and make good the finished tensile structure.
The existing roof is made up of a double skin PTFE multi barrel-vaulted structure contained within a large, essentially triangular, outer ring beam. All fabric elements were fixed to the steel structure via luff track or clamp plates.
An aluminium facade contains the guttering and gives a nice finished appearance to the entire perimeter.
Sitting at the heart of Malinslee, Telford, The Old Park Centre is at the heart of the community. A regeneration project in 2008 aimed to act as a catalyst to lift a deprived area of Telford into a blossoming community hub. Part of this project resulted in the amalgamation of two existing schools into the newly formed Old Park Primary School. This new school had been carefully designed by BBLB Architects to accomodate 450 pupils in as stimulating an environment as possible. The external areas of the school were of great importance to the overall design and redevelopment initiative and this attractive membrane canopy plays a key role.
A multi-conic walkway to provide protection from the elements and allow year round use of the outside environment by the children. The perspex domes at the top of each cone allow increased light levels under the canopy in dull weather whilst the membrane shelters the pupils from both sun and rain.
The entire quadruple cone was manufactured and lifted into place in one piece and will enable enjoyable outdoor playtimes for a long time to come!
As a part of Tower Hamlets biggest ever spend on school improvements, the local council has partnered with the construction company Bouygues UK, to deliver £230m of refurbishment as a part of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme across their borough.
Base Structures were given the opportunity to tender for this project following previous successful collaborations with the Director of one of the senior companies already involved. The early brief from the project engineers identified that the canopy could not impose additional loads onto the surrounding parts of the building and so the entire structure is supported solely by the four corner columns which are bolted directly on top of the existing building’s structural steel skeleton.
For this reason and due to the position of the canopy towards the top of the building, extensive lightning protection had to be added across all of the joints in the steel framework so that in the event of a strike, the massive electrical charge would pass through the building and be harmlessly dispatched through existing steel structure to earth.
Base Structures were asked to tender for the fitting of a screen to minimize and soften the industrial visual impact of the cooling section built at the rounded northern end of the new £140 million Energy Recovery Facility (ERF). When operational this new ERF will take receipt of some 210,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste each year, to be treated in two boilers. The challenge to Base Structures was to install a suitable screening for the air-cooled condenser area: a 54 m diameter half dome on the northern end of the Newhaven ERF which needed to obfuscate the harsh detail of the externally mounted cooling equipment and yet would allow the necessary volume of air through it.
Delivering a structural solution required us to develop a fully engineered aluminium fabric clamping detail that would complement the inherent flexibility of the fabric thereby ensuring that the daily stresses and strains imposed on these very large wind catching sails would dissipate uniformly into the enclosing skeletal steel frame.
“We hit upon the idea of a ‘wavy’ clamping system,” says Base Structures’ Head of Projects, Mark Smith, “using an aluminium extrusion which allowed us to pass the load evenly through the steel, rather than through the PVC. We made a series of different prototypes until we evolved a fully engineered design that achieved the loads necessary.”
The architect identified a 50% open mesh fabric as delivering on these functional criteria. To enable this relatively light weight architectural mesh material to perform structurally it contains galvanised steel threads which are woven through it to a regular pattern.
Two different clamps were developed: an ‘intermediate’ design to hold the sections of fabric together, and a ‘perimeter’ design, used to clamp the joined sections to the supporting steel structure. The only modification necessary was to pre-stress the mesh before it was clamped in.
Installation of the mesh above the heavy process equipment took around six weeks for a team of six on the ground fitting sections together and 14 riggers, clamping and bolting the sections into place. Having refined this techique, Base Structures is confident it will significantly reduce this build time for future projects.
Like a vision taken straight from the set of Blade Runner, East Sussex’s new Energy Recovery Facility perches in the estuary of the River Ouse reclaiming the energy stored within our waste which would otherwise end up as landfill.
“Base Structures found a technical solution on the basis of their knowledge, creativity and problem solving attitude. They transferred successfully the information from design study onto the final construction.”
Andreas Clausen, HOCHTIEF Construction Manager
in Bristol
