Archives

Project Details

Fabric 1

Soliday Concept
Producer/Manufacturer: OTHER
Primary Use: Main Fabric

Fabrication Company
Soliday

Please describe the project specifications

Motorised Retractable Shade Sail covering a large outdoor dining area on a deck at a private residence in Wanaka. The sail is 47m2 and square in shape. The system is operated by a Smart Phone App allowing remote control of the sail and the ability to program it’s use.
The fabric is white in colour to match the exterior paint of the house and is rated UPF80+, along with being water repellent allowing it to be used for sun protection as well as light rain protection. The fabric is coiled on a horizontal, motor-driven shaft when the sail is closed and opens horizontally to a length of 6 m. Automatic cloth tensioning ensures the sail cloth is always sitting perfectly between the 4 connection points.
The 4 Aluminium Poles are powder coated in Flax Pod to match the window joinery at the property. Due to the tear drop shape of the poles, all electrical and operating cables are hidden from view, enhancing the overall sleek look of the shade system.
Our clients have a large North-West facing deck that they could not enjoy as it was too exposed to the sun. There is also floor to ceiling windows along the side of the house facing the deck, causing extremely hot temperatures inside during summer. They asked for a stylish solution that could shade the deck and also improve the indoor climate, but that could be closed or put away when not required. Being a new high-tech home, they also requested an operating system that had the ability to be fully automated.

What is unique or complex about the project?

Usually, the system type we used for this project has the rolling shaft mounted on the side of the house. However due to the hand folded zinc cladding on the house, this was not possible as the cladding is very hard to modify once installed and is a very expensive to replace if damaged. To avoid any damage to the cladding we redesigned the system to be free-standing on 4 poles.
In order to integrate the poles into the existing decking we needed to carefully cut the decking timber to fit around our tear shaped poles and engineer plates to fit around the base of the poles on the deck.
A unique feature of this project is the ground screws we used instead of concrete foundations. The ground screws are drilled into the ground and our poles slot in and are fixed ensuring no movement when the sail is opened and retracted. They can be easily removed should the system need to be moved or taken down for any reason and reduce the carbon footprint of the project by avoiding the use of concrete. We used the ground screws for all 4 pole foundations.
Operated by a Smart Phone App and Wind sensor, the user can set a range of “rules” for the sail’s opening and closing sequences, such as day/time, wind speed and the level of sunlight, along with being able to control the system remotely at any time.

Content is submitted by the participant. IFAI is not responsible for the content descriptions of the IAA award winners.