Barker College Rosewood Centre Awnings
Project Details
Location: Hornsby, NSW
Completion Date: May 2020
Size: 722 sqm
Fabric: PVC Hiraoka 102T-II SAC
Photography: © Luke Zeme Photography
Barker College, located in the leafy northern Sydney suburb of Hornsby recently constructed a new sports and learning precinct. Central to the development was the large multi-use Rosewood Centre.
MakMax Australia was involved the project through the engineering and installation of a series of large skillion panel awnings, designed to reduce glare and excessive sunlight into the building.
The Brief
The Rosewood Centre is a large, 3-level building housing classrooms, a sports facility and staff areas. The architects and developers requested a multi-level series of large tensile membrane awnings to compliment the modern building aesthetic, while also providing privacy for students inside the building and protection from weather elements.
The Concept
MakMax Australia designed a series of crisp, modern-looking, skillion awnings to add a striking visual feature to the clean, linear lines of building.
The geometry of the awnings modulate in and out from the building, providing a wave-like aesthetic which adds a unique architectural feature to the structure, while still providing the required privacy and weatherproof functionality.
The Materials
The awnings were constructed with high-translucency Hirakoa PVC fabric to allow for light transmission, maintaining good natural lighting levels within the building but reducing glare and excessive sunlight penetrations into the sport and learning areas.
Engineered and fabricated in MakMax’s Brisbane facility, the fabric panels required only one field joint in over 123m of fabric.
Due to the wide surface area and lack of incorporated guttering, an innovative solution to rainwater had to be created specifically for the awnings. Rain diverters were added onto the lower edge of structure by to avoid cascading water runoff from fabric surface. The diverters we bolted directly to the extrusions to minimise additional structural components.
The clean lines of the awnings were maintained by using longer length powder-coated aluminium clamp plates to clamp the fabric onto each rafter. The steel frame also made use of diablo covers to hide the structural connections, making them all but invisible.
The Result
The awnings achieved the visual aesthetics required while maintaining visual privacy and weatherproofing. The designing architect, the construction company and the school were all extremely happy with the final result.
