26 Oct 2019
Faculty Incharge: Ar.Kiruthika selvi K J Asst Prof, Ar.Sriviji.N Asst Prof
Course: Structures V
Students: 5th SEM, B.Arch.
No. of Students: 33
School of Architecture organized a hands-on workshop on “Tensile roofing” on 25th October, 2019. The workshop was organized as a part of their curriculum for fifth semester students. This was an exercise to experience and learn the process of creating Tensile membrane structures and also to understand tensional forces acting on the Tensile roof, with the guidance of the faculty members. Tensile roofing is a good solution for shading as it is environmentally compatible. Advantages of tensile roofing include flexibility of usage, lightweight for handling and also allow natural lighting and ventilation.
This exercise is to understand the importance of material properties and structural geometry of the design. Provision of adequate anchorages and supporting structures was addressed during the theory session. The shape of a tensile fabric canopy is fundamental to its ability to resist all applied loads in tension. The tensile forms behave with various patterns in terms of direction as the combinations of these parametric curves provide a different range of geometric designs.
The stress in the structure determines the shape of the tensile roof hence the application of tensional forces by stretching the fabric made the students understand when an external load is applied to create stress it balances the local forces and makes the structures become zero bending and with compression stiffness.
The students showed great interest and actively participated in the process of form finding and construction. This could help the students in implementing such tensile structures with ease in their design projects.
We would like to thank Management REVA, and our Director, School of Architecture, Dr. Vimala Swamy, for the constant support and guidance.
