During the final week of the academic year 2013-14, Bruface students (both architectural and civil engineering) have built a prototype of a canopy for the optional course Workshop Lightweight Structures. The aim of this course is ‘to design and build’ a lightweight structure. A design from the previous academic year was re-engineered and successfully built on campus.

The canopy was made by Velum using a PVC-coated polyester fabric from Sioen.

For this design, the pre-tension was set to a minimum to reduce the overall weight and cost of the components. It was analyzed using an integrated model as the membrane, the belts and the floating struts strongly interact (displacements and forces) to realize the equilibrium configuration.

The set-up was prepared in detail: the individual belts were numbered and were marked with their length in the final configuration. The step-by-step procedure was executed as planned.

The students recognized that 'lightweight', 'precision', '3D-complexity' and 'flexibility' have a different meaning now that they’ve experienced the construction on site.