Diu Tensile Structure (2,200 m²)

A public pavilion in a coastal tourist town has a straightforward purpose: give people somewhere shaded and dry to stand, sit or gather, without cutting them off from the sea air and the view. It also has to survive a punishing environment — constant UV, salt spray and a heavy monsoon — with minimal maintenance, because upkeep on an island is expensive.

Ekra Decor’s scope covered both structures on the site: survey, 3D design of the cone and the double-peak canopy, fabrication of the galvanised steel and the membrane, and installation and tensioning, over a total of about 2,200 m² and roughly 40 days.

The conical form is the efficient answer here. Pulling the membrane up to a central ring and down to the perimeter gives a steep radial double curvature that pre-stresses the fabric, keeps it stable in the strong coastal wind, and drains the monsoon straight off the slope. Over a circular base building the cone also just fits — the roof geometry and the plan agree.

What changes for a marine site is the specification, not the shape. The steel is hot-dip galvanised, fittings and cables are stainless where they are exposed, and the membrane is a PVDF- or PTFE-coated fabric chosen for its resistance to UV and salt rather than the cheapest option. Ekra Decor form-finds the geometry in 3D, designs the steel to IS 800, and takes wind and rain loads to the applicable Indian codes, with foundations sized for the wind uplift that governs an exposed peaked roof.

The cone and the double-peak canopy are cut and welded into finished membrane pieces in the workshop, and the masts, rings and perimeter steel are fabricated and galvanised, so what ships to the island is a set of prepared components rather than raw material.

On site the crew casts the foundations, erects and plumbs the masts, and spreads and tensions each membrane so its curvature comes up true. Working on a constrained island site under construction, the sequence was kept tight, and the structures were completed in about 40 days.

Diu gained a pair of open-sided tensile structures that give shade and rain cover while staying connected to the sea — built in a specification meant to last in salt air with little maintenance.

Ekra Decor designs custom fabric structures and conical pavilions for public and tourism projects. See more on the projects page, or read about tensile structures in Diu.