DPS Guwahati Tensile Structure

A big school campus runs on its outdoor spaces — morning assembly, PE and sport, the movement of hundreds of students between blocks — and in Guwahati all of that is at the mercy of a very heavy monsoon. Covering a key space with a tensile canopy keeps the school’s routine intact through the rains, at a cost the school can justify against an enclosed hall.

Ekra Decor’s scope covered the structure end to end: survey and setting-out, 3D structural and membrane design, fabrication of the galvanised steel frame and the welded fabric, and installation and tensioning, over about 2,200 m².

Whatever the space underneath — an assembly ground, a court, a courtyard — a school cover is designed as a clear span so nothing structural stands in the usable area or a child’s path. The membrane and its steel cross the space to columns set around the edge, and the clear height is set well above head height and any sport played beneath it.

The fabric is form-found in 3D and pre-stressed into double curvature so it stays taut under wind uplift and sheds water to defined points. In Guwahati the rain load is the headline number, so the fall and the gutters are sized for an exceptional monsoon. Ekra Decor designs the steelwork to IS 800 and checks the structure for wind, rain and seismic loading to the applicable Indian codes; the region’s higher seismic classification is part of that assessment.

A translucent membrane keeps the covered space bright and usable as a daytime environment rather than a dim shelter.

The steel is cut, welded and hot-dip galvanised in the workshop and the membrane is cut and high-frequency welded into panels off-site, so on-site work is limited to casting the foundations, erecting the frame and running and tensioning the membrane.

On a running campus that work is fenced off and lifts and deliveries are timed around the school day, with the space handed back as a finished, tensioned structure.

DPS Guwahati gained a large covered area that keeps a key part of campus life — assembly, sport or circulation — running through one of the wettest climates in India. It is a low-maintenance structure: periodic cleaning and a routine check of the frame and tensions.

Ekra Decor builds assembly and sports-court covers and covered walkways for schools across the country. See more on the projects page, or read about tensile structures in Guwahati.