With 2023 being one of the wettest years on record and January 2024 one of the warmest, councilors and developers across Continental Europe in both rural and urban areas alike have had to face up to and tackle these continuing weather changes to both adapt their environments to stay functional and ensure municipal spaces operate properly for use by the public.
In our blog post on the redevelopment of Irish Town Centres, we discussed the policies that were outlined by Irish ministers targeting the regeneration of town centre’s across the country, creating viable, vibrant, and attractive areas that serve a wide range of social and cultural needs. In the Town Centre First policy, it also identifies needs to create larger population areas in more remote towns and villages, whilst ensuring the design allows for sustainable mobility and travel, tackles air quality and promotes energy communities.
Sustainable development is key to achieving this and creating meaningful social and business spaces within these areas. Designing in flexible use and inspirational placemaking is a part of this, but so is using the right design philosophies and materials to create spaces that stand up to poor weather.
By adding in-built climate resilience to any placemaking or regeneration project, town centre’s can safeguard their investment, add longevity to the spaces that are being created and provide an aesthetically pleasing and enjoyable space to use by the community.
Here are some ideas on how you can add resilience against a changing climate when thinking about a town centre project.
Active Travel and Easy Access to Services
To entice people to use shared urban spaces, one of the key points of the Town Centre First policy is that any development should promote active travel, accessibility around the space and establish straightforward ways into a range of services. By using a well-designed walkway or car park or cycle park canopy, for example, you can quickly link up detached areas and provide weatherproofing and shelter for users getting from one part of town to another. It means people will have a more positive engagement with the spaces on offer, and not avoid using them during poor weather or unusually hot weather.
Promoting Outdoor Activities and Recreation with Low Energy Spaces
Some of the larger or more expansive canopies offer the perfect space to carry out a wide range of sports – or even create pop up, temporary areas for equipment to be used no matter what the weather. Creating a comfortable and shaded area where people can participate in outdoor games, relax, or engage in group activities is important to community welfare and fosters social interaction. Using canopies for such spaces is also a great low energy solution compared to other building options and allow natural daylight through. There is also the opportunity to deck out and style these small outdoor spaces and for a number of different uses.
Improving Spaces for Nature
There is an opportunity to embrace our changing climate and weather patterns to create more dedicated spaces using fabric canopies to create well-designed areas for people to visit and utilise within nature. There might be an opportunity to create a nature space in an empty area, tackling the need to find uses for disused buildings, or there may be the ability to embrace a changing climate by growing new varieties of plants within small urban gardens for use by the community.
Tackling Wellbeing Issues within Communities
Creating dedicated spaces for time out and wellbeing using fabric canopies is a well-used technique and one we have adopted in many projects in Ireland, such as our work in The Square in Listowel and Portrush. These canopies can improve wellbeing by providing more social space, break-out areas to encourage business to thrive under cover, and mitigating against any potential weather issues that may drive people away from these areas. They can also provide an area for entertainment and sports and be flexible to adapt to a people-first approach, being used however the community sees fit.
Contact Us
We have a variety of experience working across Ireland with companies interested in improving urban areas under the Town Centre First policy. This includes creating bespoke canopies and enhancing weather resilience for the future in the face of a changing climate, working with you to devise a seamless solution for your community. For discussion, contact us here or give us a ring on +44 (0) 1179 115250.
Schools and educational establishments, whether primary, secondary, further or higher education, are more than just about learning. They are creative places, and getting the right balance between all the aspects that make up a good school can often be seen as more of an art than a science.
As the new academic year is in full swing and we head into the busy autumn period for schools, colleges and universities, we thought we would take this opportunity to revisit some of the benefits of outdoor fabric canopies for schools, whether it be by protecting learning environments from the elements or increasing capacity and space for learning.
Both indoor and outdoor spaces in schools, colleges and universities need to be more than just functional; they should provide a conducive environment for learning, individual growth and social learning, and there are few better ways to do this than by erecting creative and compelling structures in which to make best use of your school grounds.
Over recent years, outdoor fabric canopies for schools and education facilities have emerged as a versatile solution to enhance the utility and aesthetics of educational buildings – they can often make a big difference with limited disruption and initial outlay in terms of cost. In this article, we will delve deeper into five key benefits of outdoor fabric canopies in education.
The idea of moving beyond traditional classroom walls is gaining traction across various educational establishments, and outdoor fabric canopies offer schools, colleges and universities the opportunity to operate in dedicated outdoor classrooms and learning spaces – often on both a temporary or depending on the ask, more permanent basis.
Teachers, students and pupils can harness the learning potential available in their surroundings, whilst at the same time providing shade and shelter in hot pre-summer and early autumn days. Students can engage in hands-on activities, experiments, and group discussions in a refreshing outdoor setting, which not only breaks the monotony of indoor learning but also encourages creativity, exploration, and more provocative conversations about the world around us.
There are a number of obvious branding opportunities to be had when creating outdoor tensile structures, and many options, especially canopies, can be customised to suit the environment and nature of the educational facility. There is the opportunity to create ‘statement pieces’ on disused areas of land or outdoor space, for example, which has a positive benefit for the local community and its identity. There is also a more general aesthetic benefit – canopies enhance the overall aesthetics of school grounds or university campus, offering a pleasing environment that can have a profound impact on students’ moods and mindset and thereby contributing to a better overall learning experience.
As we foster the next generation, schools are expected to set an example for sustainable practices and looking after the environment around us. Fabric canopies offer a low embedded carbon build compared to alternative building materials and have long lifespans providing they are well maintained, which would reduce the need for frequent replacements.
By creating shaded outdoor areas, schools and universities can reduce their reliance on energy-intensive air conditioning systems, contributing to energy conservation and reduced carbon emissions.
Some of the larger or more expansive canopies in educational facility grounds offer the perfect space to carry out a wide range of sports – or even create pop up, temporary areas for equipment to be used no matter what the weather. Creating a comfortable and shaded area where students can participate in outdoor games, relax during breaks, or engage in group activities is important to overall student welfare and fosters social interaction and teamwork. There is also the opportunity to deck out and style these small outdoor spaces however each school sees fit, and for a number of different uses.
The UK weather is getting hotter, and also wetter and more humid, with large downpours in the shoulder seasons not uncommon, as well as other disruptive weather like snow happening each winter. A canopy in an outdoor setting allows education to continue in a stress-free and relatively affordable way – outdoor canopies act as a protective shield and will give educational establishments peace of mind and avoid any last-minute changes of plan when extreme weather does hit. Plenty of the canopies we offer are highly rated against the elements, which includes sunshine, so schools can be sure of effective and high-quality solar shading in the spring and summer months. There’s an added benefit to equipment left outside too, as under a canopy it’ll be less likely to suffer from sun damage.
As we are now heading back to school and the autumn term is starting in earnest, now is a great time to consider what canopies or systems you can put up across the year in time for shade protection next summer, ensuring you make year round use of outdoor spaces. For more information, contact the Base Structures canopy team using the contact form below.
We are ready to discuss your next school project, whether large or small. Our team can help decide on the best product for you. Contact us using the details or the form, thank you.
Over the years, Base Structures have installed numerous sun shade canopies, which are versatile tensile fabric structures that provide shelter from all the elements as well as providing much needed protection from the sun during the summer months.
As our climate changes and our summers get hotter, it has become even more important in public areas to provide protection from the sun’s rays. Fabric canopies can also introduce a striking appearance to otherwise undistinguished areas. In this article, we’ll be looking at some of the benefits of installing sunshades, with reference to some of our previous projects to inspire ideas of how you may be able to enhance outside space.
Utilisation of Outdoor Spaces
In addition to UV protection and respite from heat and reduction of glare, one of the primary uses of sun shades is to greater utilise the outdoors and create spaces that can be used by the community that were otherwise being underused. This can be seen across many of our school play shade projects such as at St Crispin’s or The Square in Listowel (both pictured below).
The ability to create visually interesting shapes and form that fabric brings, offers the ability to create an inviting, attractive and comfortable environment providing a focal point for community gathering and meeting, such as the canopy to protect people from the harsh sunshine and very high temperatures in the Community of Omdurman, in Sudan.
Making a statement design feature
A beautiful umbrella canopy can not only provide shade for a luxury setting but create a statement to individualise the space. Furthermore detailed graphics and printing options are possible with many different fabrics and are a great way to create a unique design feature or brand awareness. The printed canopy shown below installed at a private villa in Jeddah carries a personalised Arabic design printed on the underside of the PVC and creates a beautiful and calming space to escape the heat.
Energy Efficiency
Another key benefit is the reduction of heat build-up in commercial buildings that consume a substantial amount of energy for cooling purposes, particularly in regions with intense sunlight. Sun shades help reduce solar heat gain by blocking a significant portion of the sun’s rays. By limiting direct sunlight, they prevent excessive heat buildup within the buildings, leading to reduced reliance on air conditioning systems.
In particular our work at ADC Phoenix – Base Structures in Arizona is a good example of a utilitarian use of sun shading for a data centre to prevent overheating of the air handling units.
Spacing and hard to utilise areas
Sunshades and small canopies are also excellent to use when it comes to adding sunlight or weather protection to small areas of interior or exterior space, you’d like to make the most of. They can fit into existing courtyards or internal ceiling spaces, like at our project for St George’s Hospital or St Enochs Centre St Enoch Centre – Base Structures.
If you’re thinking about preparing to protect your environment or the people in your space from the elements, or direct sunlight, contact us today. Our team of tensile fabric experts are on hand to work with you through every step of the process from designing bespoke systems or advising on whether off-the-shelf canopies may work for your needs. Either visit the contact page or fill in the form below for more information.
We were shocked and saddened for The Bristol Packet team in June 2021 to hear the news that their ‘Floating Bar Greenshank’ had sunk overnight.
Having originally installed the roof canopy to the newly opened Floating Café boat in 2019, we were approached by Luke at Bristol Packet to discuss options for re-making the canopy should the boat be successfully salvaged.
Our team would have been able to work from the original designs and create a new canopy, but this would have lead to greater expense at a difficult time. Wreck divers were taking to the dock to salvage what they could from the Greenshank so it was agreed to await the outcome of their mission. Luckily the divers were able to cut the majority of the canopy free from the frame with knives and without significant damage to the fabric and return it to us.
Working with the teams at Andrews Marquees and Outsourced Manufacturing (OMS), we were able to get the canopy cleaned fully and assess what state it was in and if it could be repaired. OMS determined they could replace the edging pockets, repair the tears and restore the canopy to its original design as the divers had managed to save such a good amount of the core canopy.
Now 2 years later the boat has finally returned to the water in June 2023 and the café is now open and in full swing which is fantastic news for all involved!
The fire retardant lacquered PVC coated polyester fabric that we use for our fabric structures is extremely durable and is designed withstand the elements for many years. We were not however expecting the fabric to undergo a full submersion test in the Bristol Docks, never the less it did pass the test with flying colours!
We are really pleased to have been able to help with the restoration process and can’t wait to get back aboard for a drink!
Last year, Irish minsters outlined policies targeting the regeneration of town centers across the country. By creating areas that are ‘viable, vibrant and attractive,’ whilst at the same time servicing the social, cultural and recreational needs of well-established communities, the Irish approach looks to service existing needs at the same time as attracting new inward investment to areas in need of rejuvenation.
At the core of these policies are measures to reduce the decline of small towns and cities, which have struggled to compete with larger urban areas in terms of attracting investment, jobs and therefore an influx of people. By focusing on these towns, policymakers hope to revitalise deprived areas and create more livable communities that can attract residents and businesses.
Base Structures have been lucky enough to work on some high-profile projects in Ireland that address the need to engage communities and develop flexible living and working arrangements that combine the need of communities with those of business and industry as well as provide spaces that are in keeping and sympathetic to historical architecture.
Developing and encouraging a mix of uses in a town centre makes it more viable when it comes to living flexibly – residential, commercial and space for cultural activities can all exist amongst each other. This can help create a lively and diverse urban environment that is attractive to different groups of people – and can promote creative solutions for parks, pedestrian-friendly streets, public environments and town squares.
In Listowel, we worked with Kerry County Council and Architect Isla Rutgers to devise a canopy system to stimulate socialising and utilisation of an existing but under used pedestrianized area. The result was a cost-effective pre-designed canopy with an added lighting system that vitally was sympathetic to the heritage and history of the surrounding buildings.
Engaging with local communities and stakeholders in the development process is key to these policies. This might involve consulting with residents and businesses to understand their needs and preferences, and involving them in decision-making processes. By looping in communities at each stage, town centres stand a much better chance of designing for the people that matter – the residents themselves.
Another benefit of the town centre first policy is that it can help reduce sprawl and promote more sustainable development patterns. By prioritising the development of existing urban centres, the policy discourages the creation of new developments on the outskirts of cities and towns, which can lead to increased car dependency and a decline in public transport usage.
Our work in Portrush in Northern Ireland, for example, also helped regenerate a disused municipal area on the seafront into a flexible entertainment hub, with the addition of a fabric canopy to improve socialising options outside.
To find out more about Base Structures’ involvement in placemaking and adapting, renovating and rejuvenating town centre environments affordably and efficiently, we have a number of other blogs to read, from inspirational placemaking examples to how town centre design can play a key role in reinventing urban squares for the future city.
In our previous blog post, we looked at how best to use canopies to span courtyards and spaces between buildings, making an impactful and useful area for visitors or customers. In this follow up post, we’re turning our attention to the benefits of covered walkways, link canopies and entrance canopies.
During the COVID pandemic, many businesses utilised entrance canopies for waiting and queuing areas to increase the space available for socially distanced queues. Given the weather protection benefits and expansion of cover we are seeing many businesses wanting to continue to offer this safe and comfortable space ongoing. Here, we discuss a few benefits and link to some of the best examples of our work in this area.
Link Walkway Canopies
Providing a dry route between buildings, link walkway canopies can offer clear and distinct wayfinding and new route options without the need for more extensive building work. They can also divert users away from undesirable locations such as construction areas or restricted sections of the building.
Our canopies at Edinburgh Airport are some great examples of covered link walkways in action, improving the airport user experience with protection from the elements whilst walking between terminal buildings and because they enabled the Airport to define new routes to key areas within the terminal expansion, such as bus stops and taxi ranks.
Also this bespoke design offered the Airport an opportunity to create a unique look and style and establish the new terminal as a recognisable landmark.
Entrance Canopies
Bespoke tensile fabric options are a fantastic way to architecturally signpost the entrance to a building, as well as offering functional uses. Entrance canopies such as our design for City of Bristol College, offer not only a dramatic and attractive entrance to the building, but also act as a sheltered congregation or meeting point and gives protection from the elements for queuing.
Check out our projects at Terminal 5 Heathrow, University of Herts, Archlight Cinema and Trepassey Care Home , Telford Railway Footbridge, Pollok Shopping Centre and Glasgow Aiport for other examples of bespoke walkway and entrance canopies to inspire your project.
Contact Us
If you’re interested in adding a bespoke fabric structure such as an entrance or link walkway canopy to your next project, we can help. Get in touch by filling out the form below and our fabric experts will contact you – we can help design and build bespoke solutions specific to your building or project.
Speak to us about your latest project and we’ll reply to discuss your requirements. Thank you.
One of the main advantages of a bespoke tensile fabric canopy is the flexibility it gives the designer. Tensile fabric can be stretched and manipulated to create complex shapes and forms that very few other building materials can achieve, allowing architects and designers to create unique and visually stunning spaces. It can be equally effective for enhancing small spaces as well as larger scale structures such as sports arenas, exhibition halls, and airports.
In this blog post, we’ll focus on one of the main uses of tensile fabric in small to medium-sized projects, covered courtyard canopies.
The main benefit of a retro-fitted courtyard canopy, is that by infilling spaces between buildings it can turn disused, under-utilised areas into useful protected circulation routes and breakout spaces. And all within the existing footprint of the building.
A good example is the break-time area created with our project at Beaufort School – a roof structure that is not only a striking architectural feature but also transforms the use of space by providing shelter for students and staff between moving between around the school. As well as providing protection from the elements, the low mass of the fabric also means that it requires less supporting structure, which can result in significant cost savings compared to a glass roof.
For even greater flexibility we can offer retractable fabric roof structures, as illustrated in our project at Raddison Guildford. The courtyard is used for outdoor dining and the client now has the opportunity to respond to the weather conditions and provide the optimum outdoor experience for their guests.
Other projects that illustrate the concept of naturally lit covered spaces are the courtyard at Hounslow School and the ETFE covered internal street at Samworth Academy.
If you’re thinking of using tensile fabric to transform an existing courtyard space in your next project, we have experts on hand to answer questions and guide you through the process. We specialise in the design, manufacture and installation of bespoke canopies for tricky sites, and can advise on the best course of action in the early stages of your project. Contact us using the form below for more information and we’ll get in touch.
If you’re interested in our bespoke canopy services, fill out the form here and one of our tensile fabric experts will be in touch soon to discuss your needs.
As we mark the end of 2022 and draw this year’s projects to a close, our last post of the year will focus on one in particular project which we absolutely loved being involved in this year.
We love to have the opportunity to get creative and develop unique and inventive structures, but when it also offers such a benefit to the community and organisations involved, it’s a really satisfying experience.
This is why we selected The Sudan Museums as our favourite project of 2022
It’s always exciting to work on projects around the world, and this is a great example of a project that not only provided an interesting challenge for the Base team, but one that provided definite added benefit to the community in which it’s based.
Architect Michael Mallinson asked us to help develop a canopy for the Community of Omdurman, in Khartoum, Sudan. With average daily temperatures of 44 degrees, the community was in need of a shaded and well ventilated event space for community meetings and gatherings.
We were pleased to help out – designing and engineering the scheme for approval by the Director of the Khalifa House Museum, Niemat Mohamed. Consisting of an array of rolled steel arches, the structure was fabricated and site welded by a local shipbuilder and utilised a local, community workforce to assist in its construction.
Between the arches is a tensioned grid of steel cables onto which is woven 50mm wide strips of polypropylene to form a shade canopy. The woven texture of the tent is a combination of traditional woven matt tents of the Darfur Nomads, and woven Angareb beds. The result of the project provided a versatile, accessible and well-shaded event and community space to enable people to come together even during the heat of the day. The same design was used successfully again at Darfur Community Museum, Nyala South Darfur.
The result of the project provided a versatile, accessible and well-shaded event and community space to enable people to come together even during the heat of the day.
Using temporary screening on site is a great way to ensure no matter what happens, your construction project can continue despite what weather or programme delays throws at it. We’re proud to say that we’ve just achieved this on a new project – using removable, adaptable screening to aid site access and project progression in a prominent city-centre construction site.
To aid protection from rapidly deteriorating weather conditions, the client was looking for temporary screening to secure a 15-storey office building, guaranteeing their programme of work could continue uninterrupted and meet pre-arranged turnaround times.
To meet the requirements of the proposal, we installed forty-four screens across the length of the building, with an impressive total fabric area of 1,800m2. Ensuring the project could continue no matter what happened to the weather, the screens were designed to withstand all relevant British Standard wind loadings and fire retardancy requirements. We also took this one step further and devised new attachment methods in tandem with the client to circumvent the fact that the existing columns were not appropriate. The results were cost effective, versatile, and offered much more flexibility when considering site conditions and access requirements.
The client, said: “The temporary weathering solution installed by Base Structures is a great design and fitted our needs perfectly. The installation team has maintained an extremely high standard of quality and safety and have delivered the install ahead of the anticipated programme.”
Andy Traynor, Head of Installation on the project and Director at Base Structures, added: “These temporary fabric screens help solve a problem for a client at a vital time in their building programme, enabling them to work uninterrupted in areas where building exterior is yet to be completed. Tensile fabric is perfect for this job, as they can be installed quickly with minimal disruption, allowing contractors to get on with the job and fulfil tight turnaround times. These screens are also very easy to dismount, so when they’re no longer needed, we will also remove them”
Base Structures are committed to the upcycling and re-use of tensile fabric that has not yet reached its end of life, and our zero-landfill policy means that screens like this can find another useful life elsewhere.
To speak to Base Structures about similar projects, or where expertise such as this can add value and time-efficiency to your building programme, get in touch on the contact form at the bottom of the page.
As the wind and rain move into the UK this winter, tensile fabric structures are under an enormous amount of load – the fabric itself can often be damaged in high winds and rain, and fixtures and fittings can suffer wear after prolonged exposure to the elements. Base Structures offer comprehensive fabric structure surveys for your tensile fabric system – maintaining and replacing, damaged structures where appropriate or advising on the best course of action to keep your system safe and providing the best possible value and aesthetic appeal.
Read on for a few reasons why we think getting a thorough structural inspection this winter is a vital part of your overall building maintenance programme.
Damage to fabric structures can often occur in unseen places – at fixing points for example, or at heights where an inspection with the naked eye can be misleading. Not only can access be difficult to fully assess any damage, it’s also hard without specialist advice to know where to look and where start to fix any issues.
Our structural inspections go beyond just the fabric, we will take a detailed look at the fixtures and fitting and make recommendations to replace elements that may be showing signs of age. We can even make overall improvements to your structure by painting and cleaning steel structures or wire rope systems.
Once the inspection report is completed it will be reviewed internally by our expert fabric technicians, and if necessary can be further analysed by a fully qualified structural engineer where a significant concern has been highlighted.
Getting a comprehensive survey from Base Structures doesn’t tie you into a full, expensive canopy replacement. Where appropriate, we’ll make recommendations to suit your budget, and in many cases remedial works can be carried out off the back of a survey that’ll save you more money than investing in a whole new canopy system. We can, for example, carry out a maintenance and cleaning plan to preserve the life of your existing canopy, or make small tensioning adjustments to ensure it stays safe.
Where it’s relevant, we can also discuss with you options for new canopies and fabrics, utilising our expert knowledge to advise on fabric technology and modern enhancements to tensile solutions.
Many structural inspections aren’t possible without the ability to look at the issues first hand. That’s why we’re fully trained and certified to work at height, offering the best possible opportunity for us to accurately advise you on the correct next steps. We’ve carried out many repair jobs at height, including wrapping cables on the Severn Bridge and pipe laying at height via rope access. Even if your repair job is relatively small, being able to get in the right position with minimal disruption to the public is key to ensuring efficient and speedy completion.
Our maintenance and replacement services are varied, and we use the whole breadth of Base Structures’ in-house expertise to provide the best possible inspection and survey services for your business. We’ve completed a number of high profile maintenance and replacement jobs across the country, including the famous Mount Stand at Lords Cricket Ground – you can read more about this project in our recent blog post here. For anything else, or if you’d like to discuss getting us along to assess your fabric system and its structural integrity, contact us today.
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