Ryde Shopping Centre Travelator Canopy

Ryde Shopping Centre Travelator Canopy Project

Project Entered by Ronstan

Award of Excellence, LSAA 2018 Design Awards Cat 1 Small Structures (1400)

Application of Project

Retail Development Travelator Canopy

Project Description

As part of Ryde Shopping Centre upgrade with a new major first floor supermarket tenant, a new travelator was installed linking two existing structures; the main shopping centre and the shopping centre car park.

The canopy protects the travelator users from adverse weather.

The canopy is stretched between two large steel rings attached to the building facades and provides an interesting screen for coloured LED projections.

Design, Fabrication, Installation Brief

As the Specialist Subcontractor we initially assisted the architect, I2C, with concept design introducing the architect to a tensile solution and suggested suitable support structures with the assistance of our engineers who liaised with the building engineers.

The works then went to builders tender and we were successfully novated to undertake the specialist works.

The canopy envelopes the travelator linking two buildings at first floor level above an open air piazza / concourse. Floor levels on the two structures are at different levels.

The canopy flairs out to connect to large structural rings that encircle the travelator support frames and are tied back through the existing facades at second floor levels.

Access to the site was through the piazza and along the concourse so the rings were broken down into transportable segments that could be assembled around the travelator; once it was installed.

Materials

The canopy is constructed from Hiraoka PVC coated PES and is banded with high and regular translucency fabric that cuts across the regular warp seams in the canopy. This offers some additional daytime playfulness.

The canopy has Ronstan stainless steel catenary edge cables spanning the free edges of the canopy and it is clamped to steelwork using rope track extrusions. Extrusions were conically rolled to match the clamp plates on the CHS steelwork rings. Cover flaps ensure a watertight edge at the building facades.

The travelator is fitting with sprinklers for appropriate fire performance.

The canopy is externally enveloped in a double helix spiral of cables; intended to act as a trellis frame in the future.

Collaboration, Construction and Maintenance

The most difficult part of the structure was that the canopy ties into the two adjoining buildings. An accurate site survey was required to obtain an accurate starting point for detailing. This included an extrapolation from the survey of façade back to structure behind the façade.

We were also reliant upon close coordination with other contractors building the support frames for the travelator, who did not necessarily have the same priorities as Ronstan.