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Project Details

Fabric 1

Sioen, Floumax Type III
Producer:
Primary Use: Main Fabric

Engineer Name 1
Trevor Blackann / David Bowick / Kenneth Mak

Engineer Company 1
GuildWorks / Blackwell Structural

Design Name
Victor Golovin, Delisha Govender, Mar Ricketts

Design Company
GuildWorks

Fabrication Company
GuildWorks

Project Manager Name
Steve Marsocci

Project Manager Company
HSI Construction

Installation Name
Ian Fritz

Installation Company
GuildWorks

Please describe the project specifications

The client came to us with a need for a fusion of form and function, a practical and aesthetic solution to shading their ice rink to help preserve ice on sunny winter days, and to provide comfort during warm seasons. They wanted to maintain the open span of the skating area as well as their current walkways and equivalent seating and gathering areas. And they wanted it to be a point of civic pride, an iconic element to foster a sense of belonging and active engagement for the residents and stimulate tourism.

A project with such large open spans for coverage and strictly bounded surrounding areas for support structure presented a special set of challenges in an area that receives significant snow and wind. We had to design and engineer a highly stable shade array that worked with an inherently symmetric and regular arena using asymmetrically located supports tightly constrained by existing infrastructure above and below ground. It had to cover enough of the rink to make a functional impact while preserving a sense of lightness and openness to the sky.

That sense of lightness involved suspending over two tons of cables, fabric, and steel pipe in the air over a public gathering space, resolving back to the ground with a quarter million pounds of force to stay perfectly in place, before doubling that with wind and snow loading. Within the intricate pattern of suspended shade panels, the complex 3D geometries of the compound curves that follow force resolution had to be designed precisely. Then they installed and balanced in a special sequence to build up tension forces beyond those that could be applied directly.

This project provided a beautiful and captivating civic centerpiece that makes preserving ice consistency in an outdoor rink practical under highly variable weather conditions. It can and will be featured in the city’s tourism guides and websites, and encourages public gathering within an inspiring architectural environment.

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