Tensile Cover for playgrounds

Description

During the summer of 2021, following the success of two tensile covers de-signed and built by Carpas Zaragoza the year before, the Pamplona City Council opened a call for tenders for the design and erection of more covers in selected playgrounds within the city. Despite the challenge of the short deadline for the preliminary design, the Carpas Zaragoza design team came up with a proposal which was awarded with four out of six of the new instal-lations. The City Council required PES/PVC membranes supported on gal-vanised steel structures, with a design which would minimize the use of inner supports and vandal resistant.

The playgrounds were both fairly square, with 12mx12m in Azpila-gaña and 17mx18m in Buztintxuri , The driving idea behind the design was the combination between curvy and straight geometry, evok-ing the outline of a white dove. This idea was adjusted to the layout, shapes and height of the existing elements in each playground. The shape in the smaller installa-tion at Azpilagaña was solved with the use of a 13,5m span central arch and six twin legged masts, ori-ented according to the direction of the forces on the corner.

The philosophy behind the Buztin-txuri cover was the same, but given the dimensions, a twin arch ar-rangement was chosen, where each arc opened to the outside as it gains in height. The supporting structure was completed with six masts, as in its smaller sister. Each cover was given a white LED lightning installation to en-hance the nocturnal aesthetics and increase the availability of the playground during the winter.
Once the preliminary design was approved by the City Council, the Design Team worked on the detail design to release the workshop drawings.
While the civil works were com-pleted on site, manufacturing of the steel structure and the mem-branes were done in the Carpas Zaragoza facilities, as well as the details assembly (corner plates, etc…), final inspection, folding and packaging. The erection and final touch-ups were carried out by Carpas Zaragoza own personnel.

Description of the environmental conditions