Overview

A series of bespoke fabric walkways have been created for Big Wood School, part of the Nottingham BSF scheme, to link courtyard buildings and provide solar shading to classrooms. Three 5m Pagodas were also selected from our Signature Structures range to shelter learning zones and relaxation areas.

One of the ‘Inspired Spaces Consortium’ collaborations between Capita and Carillion, the architect’s vision was to break up the building façade, with irregular brick patterns, window lengths and door locations. The fabric walkway was therefore broken into a series of varying bay widths and the flat canopy reflects the rectilinear language of the courtyard design. This is the first, of a two phase, building project with similar canopies required to covered walkways and provide solar shading.

Once the generic steel support system was designed for the walkways, patterns for the 44 canopies were created including 8 different sizes. The installation was kept until the end of the project to ensure the clean white fabric remained pristine for the client handover. With numerous other subcontractors on site and very limited access available, the co-ordination of the installation was vital to the success of the project. Led by experienced project management and installation engineers, the walkways and Pagodas were completed start to finish in 18 days.