2026 Archive : Shade on Queen

Project Details

Fabric 1

Serge Ferrari 702 S2
Producer/Manufacturer: Serge Ferrari North America Inc.
Primary Use: Main Fabric

Please describe the project specifications

Our client was looking to re-fresh the entrance to their commercial property occupied by several different medical businesses and a cafe. The entrance way is a busy walkway and the overhead sails provide protection and shelter to customers in all weather conditions.
The premises had previously had Shade Sails installed by our company more than 15 years ago and the customer was seeking to re-use as much as possible of the original posts, structural beams and hardware.
The project consisted of one long angled sail running over cross beams and down to attachment points on the posts, comprising of eight continuous panels, with a total length of over 15m.
The other five point sail also has a cross beam running diagonally from the high point down to the low point on the western side.
The customer had been very happy with the previous sails and was seeking to get longevity, and a cost effective solution with minimal disruption to their tenants.

What is unique or complex about the project?

This project was complex due to the multi angled facets to the main sail. The over and "under" form required careful measuring and designing by our fabrication team, as the sail was one continuous sail, with ten attachment points stretching over four crossways beams. With each of the eight panels asymmetrical and of varying sizes, extreme care needed to be taken so that the sail would tension correctly.

We were working with an existing structure and many of the attachment points were angled in such a way as to tension the fabric counter to how the fabric fell over the cross beams, therefore allowance had to be made for this in the fabricating of the sail so it would tension correctly on installation.

Our installation team needed to start just after dawn over two days to conduct the installation prior to the businesses being open due to health & safety requirements of such a busy public site. The site itself is narrow with thirteen posts around which to manoeuvre the two scissor lifts required for the install.

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