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Architectural Membrane Systems

Concept visualisation: a stainless mast head with tie rods holding the high corner of a white membrane at dusk.

Engineering

Beautiful shade starts with an equilibrium problem.

A tensile structure is only as good as the reasoning under it. This is how an ARCVEIL membrane goes from four points to a structure that can be fabricated, installed and trusted.

Start designingRead the method
Designed in AustraliaConcept visualisation. Mast head and tie rods

01 Form-finding

A sail isn’t drawn. Its shape is solved.

ARCVEIL finds membrane forms with the force density method. The surface is modelled as a fine net of links in tension, and the solver finds the single position of every node where those tensions balance. Edge cables are tuned until each edge reaches its target sag.

The result is a shape with measurable properties: surface area, edge lengths and heights, read from the geometry instead of estimated.

401 nodes, 800 links. Solved in 4 sag iterations.

ABCD

02 Double curvature

Curvature creates stability.

A flat membrane can only resist load by moving until it is no longer flat. A curved one is already shaped to resist it.

FlatFour level points. The solved surface has no curvature, so prestress alone holds it still.
AnticlasticTwo high, two low. The surface curves up in one direction and down in the other, so a load in either direction is resisted by tension in the other.
For professionals

An anticlastic surface has principal curvatures of opposite sign, giving negative Gaussian curvature. Under uniform prestress, out of plane load is carried by the change in tension between the two curvature directions, which keeps deflections small. A surface of zero curvature develops stiffness only through large displacement, which is why flat fabric flutters and ponds.

03 Wind

Wind pushes. Wind pulls.

Wind presses on one face of a membrane and draws on the other, and on many forms the upward suction case governs the design. Wind actions are determined for each site from its region, terrain, shielding, height and the shape of the structure.

Conceptual wind load visualisation. Not CFD.

Wind case

04 Structure

Design the form. Engineer the load path.

Galvanised mast base plate with stiffeners and anchor bolts on a cut reinforced concrete footing.

05 Detail

Every part on the load path is designed.

  1. 01  Membrane
  2. 02  Corner reinforcement
  3. 03  Corner plate
  4. 04  Shackle
  5. 05  Turnbuckle
  6. 06  Edge cable
  7. 07  Mast cap
  8. 08  Mast
  9. 09  Base plate
  10. 10  Footing
  11. 11  Ground

Conceptual load path. Not a structural analysis.

06 Patterning

A curved surface, cut from flat cloth.

Fabric comes off a roll flat. The solved surface is divided along seams, each panel is flattened with allowance for the stretch of prestress, and the panels are nested on the roll before a single cut is made.

Concept visualisation: tapered white membrane panels with welded seams laid out on a fabrication table.
Form
Seams
Panels flattened
Nested on the roll

Schematic sequence. Not a patterning result.

07 Fabrication and installation

Documented before it is built.

Footings, masts and hardware are documented for the workshop and the site. Installation follows a sequence: footings, masts, hardware, lifting the membrane, then tensioning to the design. The finished structure is inspected against the design it was built from.

08 Standards

Methodology, not badges.

Structural design in Australia is carried out against the National Construction Code and the Australian Standards that apply to the structure. Those most often relevant to a membrane structure are below. A design is described as compliant only once it has been assessed.

Concept visualisation: a long white membrane roof of alternating high and low points over a school courtyard.

From four points to a buildable structure.

Start designingWorking with ARCVEIL

Concept visualisation. School courtyard