G.D. Goenka School, Rudrapur Tensile Structure (558 m²)

When a school’s plan is organised around open courts, those courts are not leftover space — they are where assembly, performance and everyday movement happen. Leaving one uncovered means losing it for the hottest months and the monsoon. The brief was to roof a court so it stays in use all year, without changing its character as an open space.

Ekra Decor delivered the canopy as a turnkey job: survey and setting-out within the court, 3D structural and membrane design, fabrication of the galvanised steel frame and the welded fabric, and installation and tensioning, over 558 m² in about a month.

Roofing a court in an existing building means working to the geometry that is already there. The canopy spans between the surrounding wings, landing its supports against or just inside the court edges so the floor stays completely clear and the roof does not crowd the facades around it.

The membrane is form-found in 3D and pre-stressed into double curvature so it stays taut under wind uplift and drains to defined edges — here, away from the wings and into the court’s existing drainage. Ekra Decor designs the steelwork to IS 800 and checks the structure for wind, rain and seismic loading to the applicable Indian codes, with the foundations and the fixings back into the buildings designed for uplift.

A translucent fabric keeps the court daylit — it still reads as an open-air space, just one you can now use in any weather.

The steel is fabricated and hot-dip galvanised in the workshop and the membrane is cut and welded into panels off-site, so the on-site programme is short: fix the supports, erect the frame within the court, run the membrane and tension it.

Working inside a court on a running campus means careful access and protection of the surrounding finishes, with the work timed around the school day and the court handed back finished in about a month.

The school gained a covered court that keeps its open, daylit feel but is now usable through the summer and the monsoon — assembly, performances and circulation carry on regardless. The canopy needs only periodic cleaning and a routine tension check.

Ekra Decor builds courtyard and open-court canopies for schools and institutions. See the other G.D. Goenka Rudrapur structure, more work on the projects page, or tensile structures in Rudrapur.