Champagne Bar - Goodwood Racecourse, United Kingdom

The canopy consists of a prestressed PVC membrane suspended between two masts while anchored to the ground at the edges. The prestress horizontal forces are resisted by the supporting steel structure. The membrane’s prestress is applied through the masts’ opposite displacement, which pulls the suspended beams upward and, in turn, places tension on the membrane.

Between the highest points and the lateral bracing, polyester straps were integrated, which transfers forces from the bracing to the steel structure while also providing redundancy to keep the structure’s stability in the event the membrane is damaged.

In RFEM, a global model was created for the form-finding process as well as for the membrane and supporting steel structure design. In order to comply with all the required clearance profiles and avoid the formation of water pockets, a very differentiated form-finding procedure was carried out in which individual components were given the desired prestress, others a defined length, and some were excluded from the form-finding process in order to adapt to the given boundary conditions according to their stiffness. The membrane fabric was modeled as an orthotropic surface.