Company:
SHADE Industries

Project Details

Fabric 1

Alnet Extrablock
Producer/Manufacturer: Alnet Pty Ltd.
Primary Use: Main Fabric


Engineer Name 1
Nick Keizer

Engineer Company 1
RNK Structural Engineering

Design Company
SHADE Industries

Project Manager Company
SHADE Industries

Installation Company
SHADE Industries


Please describe the project specifications

This project, over a kindergarten school playground, features seven steel columns that support three custom shade sails. The sails have custom graphics sewn into them that represent our solar system, and include the sun, moon, and planets.

The architect wanted to provide functional shade over the kindergarten playground equipment at this new school facility, focusing the majority of shade coverage for mid-morning to early afternoon during the school year.


What is unique or complex about the project?

The playground equipment has a solar system theme, which includes a rocket climber, so in an attempt to keep with the theme, we suggested incorporating solar system graphics into the shade sails. In addition, if we were to keep our typical clearances between the top of the equipment and our shade sail, the structure would have stood taller than the adjacent building. To mitigate this design concern, we fabricated a hole in the shade sail for the rocket to “launch” through.

The school facility and kids love the incorporation of the space theme throughout the entire playground. We have furthered our positive working relationship with the school district and have since incorporated other functional and architecturally interesting shade structures at other campuses.


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