Colegio Canada Canopy, Notting Hill, London

The school had suffered for many years without a gymnasium or covered play area, and a succession of bad planning submissions had created a need for a solution of high architectural quality, but modest proposal. The solution was a 18 metre span by 48 metre long canopy, covering the area of a full sized basketball pitch.

Tapering trusses span between steel columns with cast steel head components. The slenderness of the timber truss components is possible because of the resin bonded end terminations. Aluminium to aluminium end connections are made using interlocking cast components; a direct reference to Renzo Piano’s IBM Exhibit system. The skin between the curved frames on this canopy was formed using PVC coated Polyester fabric.The double curvature was generated by fixing the fabric to the boundary of the curved trusses and pulling downwards at the edges of the roof with steel cables.

Architect Dols Wong Architects